Hello again supporters!

Welcome to the sixth 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 launched on 30th January 2024. Which means it has been running for 55 days at the time of writing.

• At the time of writing, we have 1262 signatories
• The petition has been viewed 13,574 times
• The petition has been shared 695 times
• The petition has had 24 very kind promoters who have contributed £115 to promoting the petition link to a wider audience.

Thank you so much everyone, all our signatories and promoters. We very much appreciate your support.

We list some other ways you can help us at the end of this update.

What has been happening over the past seven days?

1: First Meeting with Edinburgh Council – Monday 25th March

It is a big day for us tomorrow – our first formal meeting with Edinburgh Council.

We will be meeting with the Bereavement Services Operational Manager, and Jeremy Balfour MSP will also be attending.

Now that we know about Edinburgh Council’s “Six Month Rule”, which states that any decision taken by a Committee at Edinburgh Council can not be reconsidered until a full six months have passed, we know that there can be no changes possible to the Cemetery Management Rules at this stage in time.

The Culture & Communities Committee at Edinburgh Council last decided on the Cemetery Management Rules on 7th December 2023, so the six month rule will expire on 7th June 2024…even then, the next Culture & Communities Committee meeting after that date will be in August 2024.

So, the timeline for the next few months is clear:

• Monday 25th March 2024 – Our first formal meeting, with Edinburgh Council’s Bereavement Services Operational Manager, to present our case and discuss what changes we would like to see to the current Cemetery Management Rules.
• Friday 7th June 2024 – Edinburgh Council’s Six Month Rule expires.
• August 2024 – The first Culture & Communities Committee meeting where the current Cemetery Management Rules can be formally revisited.
• At some point between tomorrow’s meeting, and August, we will be taking up Cllr Val Walker’s offer of a meeting. Cllr Walker is the Convener of the Culture & Communities Committee.

We have said all along this process will take time, and this campaign will run for however long that process takes. We are fully committed to the long haul.

2: Change Petition updates posted this week

We published two very interesting updates this week:

STAGE 2 – “I am less happy with allowing families like Paul’s to go through another year"

This is the second of our series of updates, laying out clearly the journey of how we got where we are with the current Edinburgh Council Cemetery Management Rules.

This meeting really demonstrates how a meetings Agenda and Minutes rarely tell you the full story of what was discussed and stated. There were some real revelations from this meeting, not least:

• the different options around the issue of “dogs in cemeteries” that were on the table for the Committee to consider implementing.
• details around the cost of any changes to the rules.
• how enforcement would look, regardless of which rule was implemented.

Discussions at this meeting also backed up our belief, that the public would largely “self-police” the rule changes, after a period of education and the word spreading amongst dog owners.

Have a read of the update yourself: https://t.ly/ZMgO8

And nicely leading on from that:

Let’s talk about Enforcement – what are the costs and how would it work?

This update clearly spells out what the cost of changing the Cemetery Management Rules would be (Spoiler Alert: it’s around £1000, for signage only, regardless of what the rule is), whether there would need to be any further staff costs, such as extra Enforcement Officers (Spoiler Alert: no, there would not be any additional costs), and whether current enforcement practices would change (Spoiler Alert: no ,they would not, same staff, same number of visits).

…oh, and we make a pledge to pay the costs of any new signage because of our campaign…so the actual cost to Edinburgh Council would be £0.00

You can read this update here: https://t.ly/xO8rb

3: Ongoing contact with Edinburgh Councillors, MSP’s, and MP’s

We continue to engage with Edinburgh Councillors, particularly The Culture & Communities Committee at Edinburgh Council, MSP’s, and MP’s.

This week, we personally wrote to a further 10 Edinburgh Councillors.

To date, we have personally written to:

• 42 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.

4: Freedom of Information Requests

We have submitted three further FOI request this week, taken our running total of FOI requests submitted to 39.

We plan to write our first “FOI Friday” post this coming Friday, using some of the information we have received…and it is very revealing.

We shall leave you with these two questions to ponder….

1: How many streets in Edinburgh are Edinburgh Council responsible for?

2: In the whole of 2023, how many Fixed Penalty Notices were issued for dog fouling in the above streets?

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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 was taken, they will only consider looking again at their Cemetery Management Rules from around June 2024. The first meeting of the Culture & Communities Committee  where the rules can be discussed will be in August 2024.

It will take 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

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