Petition updateEdinburgh Council to reinstate "No Dogs in Cemeteries" rule that was in place pre-CovidWeekly Update No:7 – 30th March 2024
Andy LeesEdinburgh, United Kingdom
Mar 30, 2024

Hello again folks!

Welcome to the seventh of our weekly updates, informing you of what steps we have taken in our campaign this week, and any notable developments.

PLEASE NOTE: Our next Weekly Update will not be until the weekend of 13th/14th April.

It is Easter, and we both have family commitments and well deserved holidays to take! :-)

Firstly, the usual weekly roundup of figures.

This petition was lunched on 30th January 2024. Which means it has been running for 32 days at the time of writing.

At the time of writing, we have 1290 signatories (compared to the counter petitions 546), the petition has been viewed 14,209 times, it has been shared 697 times, and it has had 24 very kind promoters who have contributed £125 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 – The Negative

We met with Bereavement Services staff, and Jeremy Balfour MSP on Monday.

The meeting went exactly as expected.

Due to Edinburgh Council’s six-month-rule on not revisiting decisions until six months has passed, nothing could happen with the Cemetery Management Rules.

It is important to note that whilst Bereavement Services can make recommendations for the Cemetery Management Rules, ultimately it is the elected officials on the Culture & Communities Committee that have the final say on any changes to the rules.

Bereavement Services remit is to enforce these rules.

We will not lie. The tone of the meeting was more defensive and intransigent than we expected.

It appears that Bereavement Services Management have already made up their mind on this issue, and their opinion is that any sort of ban on dogs is not wanted and unnecessary.

This was not the impartial view we expected from Bereavement Services Management.

We were particularly perturbed by their claims that “there will never be a ban” and “the Cemetery Management Rules are not due be discussed at the August Committee meeting”.

You can read more of our thoughts on this meeting, in our post here:

Meeting with Bereavement Services – It’s Time to “Walk the Walk” https://t.ly/V5OM-

Despite this, our plans remain unchanged:

  • We will continue to build our case for a change in Cemetery Management Rules around the issue of dogs in cemeteries. We will do this by continuing to gather more information, facts, and statistics, and publishing these in updates on our petition and social media.

  • We will be formally requesting a meeting with Cllr Val Walker, Convener of the Culture & Communities Committee at Edinburgh Council. Cllr Walker has already kindly offered to have a meeting, so we just need to agree a date.

  • In June 2024, once the six-month-rule expires, we will formally request that the Cemetery Management Rules are added to the next available Culture & Communities Committee, which will be two months later in August.

2: First Meeting with Edinburgh Council – The Positive

Regardless of the current situation around the six-month-rule, staff in Bereavement Services and Jeremy Balfour MSP made some positive short term suggestions, which we thank them for.

These include:

  • New cemetery signage with revised wording, including the term “short leads only”. These new signs went up at Morningside Cemetery on Thursday.

  • A “new” education programme, to inform dog walkers of a cemeteries core purpose. An education programme was supposed to have been part of the “years trial” that Paul agreed to in 2022 (a trial which actually lasted for 18 months), however we learned at this week’s meeting that this education programme was never implemented. This was very disappointing to hear.

  • Jeremy Balfour MSP is going to approach the Scottish Government, to see if funding is available for a similar nationwide education programme.

Whilst these are positive short-term steps, and we are curious to see what effect they may have in the coming months, we remain sceptical of whether they will be enough.

Less than 24 hours after the signs went up at Morningside Cemetery on Thursday, Paul witnessed dog owners ignoring them on the Friday.

How predictable.

3: Change Petition updates posted this week

We published two interesting updates this week:

The aforementioned:

Meeting with Bereavement Services – It’s Time to “Walk the Walk” https://t.ly/V5OM-

This update focuses on our meeting with Bereavement Services this week, how Paul is being asked to compromise again, over two years later from his first deputation to the Culture & Communities Committee (where he agreed to a compromise in good faith), and how Edinburgh Council are failing in following through on their own clear statements around the “core purpose” of cemeteries, and these “remaining at the heart of any other activities.

Secondly, we have the first of our “FOI Friday” updates, where we share come of the information we have gleaned from Freedom of Information request:

FOI FRIDAY – The Enforcement Smokescreen https://t.ly/wQ3lW

This post centres around the issue of “enforcement” (again) and challenges Edinburgh Council’s constant excuse that “enforcement of any type of dog ban is unenforceable…so there is no point in trying”.

Please do have a read of this one. Some of the facts and figures are very enlightening.

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 5 Edinburgh Councillors.

We have now written to all 63 Edinburgh Councillors.

To date, we have personally written to:

  •  All 63 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 five further FOI request this week, taken our running total of FOI requests submitted to 44.

More of this data to come in future “FOI Friday” updates.

5: Misinformation Monday

No, “Misinformation Monday” has not disappeared. We were just too busy to post one last Monday, and we will be taking an Easter break for the following week or so.

…however, let’s consider this a very short Misinformation Monday.

The Counter Petition also had a meeting with Edinburgh Council’s Bereavement Services, a day or two after our meeting.

Obviously, we have no issue with that. They are just as entitled to have a meeting and discuss their viewpoint.

They write:

Obviously, we don't want to count our chickens before they are hatched but today, we had an incredibly positive meeting with Bereavement Services.

Bereavement Services are the City of Edinburgh Council's section that runs and rules Edinburgh Cemetries (sic) and advises and discusses changes with counsellors. As far as we understand it, any issue goes through them before councellors (sic) are able to make any decision and they may make recommendations to councellors (sic) to decide upon - it's a little hard to describe and get your head round but basically they need to be a part of any rule change/introduction at a local level and if they say no we think that's what stands.

Essentially, the good news for now is people with dogs are safe to visit Edinburgh council cemeteries (sic) (keeping to rules)! 

They have no plans to ban dogs or to ban dogs with excemptions (sic). Anyone visiting a cemetery with their dog who acts respectfully, responsibly and within current rules (especially in relation to keeping their dog on a lead) is safe!

Again, the counter petition is claiming some sort of premature “victory” for a situation they had absolutely nothing to do with. The counter petition has previous on this.

We are still within Edinburgh Council’s “six month rule” period, where a decision cannot be revisited until six months has passed since that decision – the Cemetery Management Rules were last decided on at the Culture & Communities Committee on 7th December 2023.

The Cemetery Management Rules are effectively frozen until June 2024 – there is no “good news for now” – the current situation was always going to be the same, and that is noting to do with us, the Committee, Bereavement Services, or the counter petition, or any meetings held between now and June.

Regarding whom ultimately decides on any rules around dogs in cemeteries, our understanding is this:

Edinburgh Council’s executive committees (such as the Culture & Communities Committee) are made up of elected members. These elected members make the key policy and strategy decisions. These policies decide how services are run.

The plans are then carried out by Council Officers.

Bereavement Services can make recommendations regarding the issue of dogs in cemeteries in the Cemetery Management Rules, however ultimately it is the elected officials on the Culture & Communities Committee that have the final say on any changes to the rules - and that includes considering other options on the table, and if they deem it necessary, overriding Bereavement Services recommendations.

Bereavement Services remit is then to enforce the rules that the Culture & Communities Committee decide upon.

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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 great Easter break whatever you are doing, and we will see you in a fortnight!

Paul & Andy

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