OK - Easter Break is over...back to business.

The new temporary signs and "period of education" (if that has even started) implemented by Edinburgh Council at Morningside Cemetery have been an abject failure so far.

The new signage was erected around Friday 29th March 2024, less than three weeks ago.

From the very next day, 30th March 2024, Paul has witnessed numerous dog owners ignoring the signs (as he predicted).

The small selection of photos above were taken after observing for very short periods of time, over just a few recent days - who knows what the daily number of transgressions during "peak walking periods" are?

Nothing has changed.

Irresponsible dog owners are continuing to exercise their dogs in Morningside Cemetery, on long leads or off lead, allowing them to urinate on headstones, and in the worst cases, defecate in the cemetery and not clean this up.

And yes...that is a signpost with one of the temporary signs forcibly ripped out of the ground.

As stated before, Paul has compromised with Edinburgh Council on this issue before, over two years ago, despite clearly expressing his concerns at the time that signage would not be enough.

He has agreed to compromise again, for a trial period of this new signage and "education", to give it a chance to work. Our hands are tied until June this year anyway, the expiration date of Edinburgh Council's six month rule on any decisions taken.

Therefore, it makes sense to make this trial period until mid June, 10 weeks, a decent amount of time to see if the new signage and "education" has had an effect or not.

This week, we have formally requested a meeting with Cllr Walker, Convener of Edinburgh Council's Culture & Communities Committee for mid June, where Paul will report back his observations from this trial period.

The early signs do not look promising....