Petition updateEdinburgh Council to reinstate "No Dogs in Cemeteries" rule that was in place pre-CovidIf It Ain’t Written Down…It Didn't Happen
Andy LeesEdinburgh, United Kingdom
21 Feb 2024

Let’s start this post with a basic timeline of Edinburgh Council’s Cemetery Rules:

Pre-Covid: There appears to have been a "total ban" on dogs in cemeteries (we assume with provisions for assistance dogs. we cannot find any documentation from Edinburgh Council old enough to clarify this).

2020 – 2021 Covid period – At some point, cemeteries were opened to dogs. We assume this was to give access to green spaces during the pandemic, when movement was restricted. Perfectly understandable.

6th November 2021 – Edinburgh Council Culture & Communities Committee meeting. We have looked through all the available agendas for this committee. The first mention of a "Cemetery Strategy" is at this meeting.

As part of the "Cemetery Strategy" the following statement is made - "Note that officers will engage with Committee members and key stakeholder groups on the creation of proposed draft Cemetery Management Rules and will bring these to Committee on 1 February 2022”"

1st February 2022 - Edinburgh Council Culture & Communities Committee meeting. Paul address members of Culture & Communities Committee via video link, to raise his concerns re dog walkers exercising their dogs in Morningside Cemetery.

16th August 2022 – Edinburgh Council Culture & Communities Committee meeting. Paul (and other members of the public) give further deputations to Committee Members.

At the same meeting, the new Cemetery Rules (dogs must be kept on leads) are implemented. It is agreed as an Action point:

Action: “To agree that officers would report back to committee one year from implementation detailing, compliance, complaints and any enforcement actions in relation to new management rules”

Action Owner: Executive Director of Place, Lead Officer Andrew Mitchell
Expected Completion Update: 7th December 2023

7th December 2023 – Edinburgh Council Culture & Communities Committee meeting. 

The following points are made at this meeting: (pertinent text highlighted).

4.6 As reported to Committee on 16 August 2022, revised Cemetery Management Rules were consulted upon, and Committee agreed that the Rules should be implemented from that date.

4.7 Since the implementation of the revised rules, the council has received 10 complaints about breaches of the rules, all of which referred to dogs which were off-lead in cemeteries. The complaints were made by four individuals and one further anonymous complaint. The complaints refer to just four of the 43 cemeteries operated by the service. All complainers requested that the rules should be revisited, and that the council should implement a total ban on dogs in cemeteries.

4.8 The council’s position is that a cemetery is a place of burial and reflection for the bereaved. It is acknowledged that the issue described above is of significance to those directly affected and who have been distressed by owners allowing their dogs off-lead within a cemetery. Members will recall that they previously heard deputations illustrating these concerns.

4.9 Whilst acknowledging the significance of the concerns to the individuals, based on the relatively small numbers of complaints and the practicalities of enforcing a complete ban on dogs in cemeteries, it is not proposed to revisit or amend the current Cemetery Rules at this time.

4.10 Bereavement Services staff continue to monitor the situation and will engage with users of the cemeteries, including owners of dogs and local residents, to encourage respect for the rules

5.2 Officers will continue to monitor compliance with Cemetery Rules and take enforcement action where appropriate.

Let's remind ourselves what was stated: "To agree that officers would report back to committee one year from implementation detailing, compliance, complaints and any enforcement actions in relation to new management rules”

  • Where is the information and statistics on compliance?
  • How is compliance monitored?
  • Where is the information and statistics on enforcement actions? (no of spot checks, visits, what actions are taken? etc)
  • Who is enforcing the rules? (how many staff, are they full time or part-time, are they employed by the council or Agency staff? etc?)

Edinburgh Councils "Cemetery Strategy" states "that officers will engage with Committee members and key stakeholder groups".

Paul was never invited to feed back his experiences after one year of the new rules being implemented. He asked several times about the "review" but was told there were "no plans to have one".

We have to assume the other members of the public who made the time to offer deputations to members of the Culture & Communities Committee have not been asked either.

Paul and the other deputes are a key stakeholder group. 

On the face of it, the statistics provided at the 7th December Culture & Communities Committee meeting do look low.

  • 10 complaints
  • 5 individual complainers
  • 4 out of 43 cemeteries

But does that accurately reflect the scale of the issue?

Lets look at these figures, for dog fouling fines issued by all of Scotland's Councils in the year 2016 (the 2023 are not readily available. We have Freedom of Information requests in to obtain these).

  • Aberdeen 13
  • Aberdeenshire 1
  • Angus 80
  • Argyll and Bute 6
  • Comhairle nan Eilean Siar 2
  • Edinburgh 53
  • Clackmannanshire 8
  • Dumfries & Galloway 134
  • Dundee 45 East Ayrshire 32
  • East Dunbartonshire 3
  • East Lothian 5
  • East Renfrewshire 10
  • Falkirk 24
  • Fife 29
  • Glasgow 1511
  • Highlands 3
  • Inverclyde 16
  • Midlothian 6
  • Moray 6
  • North Ayrshire 26
  • North Lanarkshire 27
  • Orkney 0
  • Perth and Kinross 76
  • Renfrewshire 20
  • Scottish Borders 9
  • Shetland 0
  • South Ayrshire 2
  • South Lanarkshire 35
  • Stirling 6
  • West Dunbartonshire 46
  • West Lothian 86​

Do we really believe there were zero instances of dog fouling in Orkney or Shetland in one year? Or only one instance in the whole of Aberdeenshire in one year? Or two in the whole of South Ayrshire in one year

Of course not.

Logic tells us there would have been many more instances…they were just not reported.

It appears, on the face of the information provided, that Edinburgh Council have looked at the number of reported instances over the first year of the new Cemetery Management rules, and said "well, they are very low, so it must be working". 

A clear case of "If It Ain’t Written Down…It Didn't Happen".

You can access all of Edinburgh Council's Culture & Communities Committee meeting notes here:

https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=139

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