Hello supporters!
Welcome to the fifth of our weekly updates, informing you of what steps we have taken in our campaign this week, and any notable developments.
Firstly, the usual weekly roundup of figures.
This petition was lunched on 30th January 2024. Which means it has been running for 47 days at the time of writing.
At the time of writing, we have 1200 signatories, the petition has been viewed 12,452 times, it has been shared 683 times, and it has had 23 very kind promoters who have contributed £109 to promoting the petition link to a wider audience.
Thank you so much everyone, all our signatories and promoters, from the very bottom of our hearts.
We list some more ways you can help us at the end of this update.
What has been happening over the past seven days?
1: Facebook Group “No Exercising Dogs in Edinburgh Cemeteries”.
Our new Facebook group for supporters is growing nicely, sparking some interesting conversations, and becoming a great place for all our supporters to hang out…and we have had no trolls trying to join this week!
Because we are not limited to one update post a day, as we are here on Change, we can share a lot more information on this group. If you want to come and join us, click on this link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1479741686087660/
2: Change Petition updates posted this week.
We published the following update this week:
Right Back to The Start – Cemetery Strategy Report – CCC Meeting 16th November 2021
This is the first part in a series of updates, charting the change in Edinburgh Council’s Cemetery Management Rules from around November 2021 to where we are now. This is all gleaned from meticulously going over the agenda, public packs, and minutes for each of Edinburgh Council’s Culture and Communities Committee meeting, as well as watching the webcasts from these meetings,
What we learn from this meeting is that:
- Previous Cemetery Management Rules had followed a national template agreed operationally amongst most Scottish local authorities several decades ago…they required updating due to the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016.
- These current "several decades old" Cemetery Management Rules prohibited all dogs except assistance/guide dogs.
- The Scientific Bereavement and Registration Services Senior Manager at Edinburgh Council rightly stated that the primary purpose of cemeteries was “to honour the dead and allow people to attend a grave and mourn a loved one”.
- The Scientific Bereavement and Registration Services Senior Manager highlighted (twice in 10 minutes) that dogs in cemeteries was an issue, and that the issue was “contentious”.
- The Cemetery Strategy Report clearly states as one of its six strategic objectives that cemeteries should be “Poignant places of remembrance and reflection”.
- If you word search the Cemetery Strategy Report PDF for the word “dog”, it does not appear once.
3: Ongoing contact with Edinburgh Councillors, MSP’s, and MP’s.
More Councillor Support:
We continue to engage with Edinburgh Councillors, particularly The Culture & Communities Committee at Edinburgh Council, MSP’s, and MP’s.
This week, we had another Edinburgh Councillor come out in support of our campaign.
Cllr Katrina Faccenda (Labour Councillor for Leith Ward) wrote to us saying:
Thank you so much for taking the time to send me this email which is incredibly useful in providing background to the petitions.
As someone who has owned dogs, I share the opinions of several of the people whose comments you have shared and am stunned to hear that people use graveyards as a place to habitually exercise their dogs. There really is no shortage of alternative greenspaces in south Edinburgh.
You can count me as a supporter of your campaign and if you need any further support, please let me know.
Katrina Faccenda
Labour Councillor for Leith Ward
Reply to our correspondence with the First Minister.
We had a reply from Caroline Stewart, Burial and Cremation, Anatomy and Death Certification team in the Scottish Government.
Caroline writes:
“Thank you for your letter to Humza Yousaf, the First Minister of Scotland. I am responding as a member of the Burial, Cremation, Anatomy and Death Certification Team.
The Scottish Government is currently in the process of implementing the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016. This act updates legislation for all burial grounds and burial authorities across Scotland. We understand how important burial grounds are to people and that is why part of the work we are taking forward is regulations for the management of burial grounds.
A public consultation on burial grounds ran from 25th August to 17thf November 2023 and we are currently analysing the results to help us inform next steps. The analysis report will be published on the Scottish Government website as soon as it is ready.”
We look forward to reading this report once it is available.
To date, we have personally written to:
- 32 Edinburgh Councillors
- All 10 members and the Convener of the Culture & Communities Committee at Edinburgh Council
- 13 MSPs
- 4 MPs
We continue to get very helpful and supportive replies from many of the above.
A small minority, to date, have not had the courtesy to reply after several weeks. We will tell you which ones soon – in a General Election year, that may be useful information for the electorate.
Our first meeting with Edinburgh Council staff is just over a week away now.
4: Freedom of Information Requests
We have submitted one further FOI request this week, taken our running total of FOI requests submitted to 36. We are still waiting on data coming back, hopefully we will be able to show you some of this next week.
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Getting Edinburgh Council to revisit the Cemetery Management Rules, or the Scottish Government to consider a new law, is not going to happen overnight.
It will take time (we now know, due to Edinburgh Council’s “six month rule” since any formal decision, they will only consider looking at their Cemetery Management Rules again around June 2024), hard work, engagement with elected officials, building a strong case, and people power from you good folk.
Nothing is ever set in stone. Rules are there to be challenged, and when deemed appropriate, changed through the democratic processes available to us.
We are committed to the long haul, whether it is six months, one year, two years or longer…and we can only do it with your help.
Thanks again for your support, have a lovely weekend,
Paul & Andy
You can donate as little as £1 to help with promotion, via the petition link below.
Join our Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1479741686087660/
Please share this Change petition via this link: https://www.change.org/nodogsscottishcemeteries
Please share the Scottish Parliament petition via this link:
https://petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2087
Email your local Edinburgh Councillor a “Letter of Support”
You will find an easy-to-use link in this post to find your local Councillor(s) as well as some template text to use in an email: http://tinyurl.com/2p8sujpn
Please contact us if you would like to help in our campaign, or offer us supportive messages: noexercisingdogsincemeteries@gmail.com
Follow us on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/nodogexcem