Hi all 

Many many thanks to our signers, sharers, donators and defenders!

As always please keep sharing and getting those all important signatures to keep Edinburgh City Council Cemetries for all.

As always you can email us at: cemeteries4all@yahoo.com

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 and advises and discusses changes with counsellors. As far as we understand it, any issue goes through them before councellors are able to make any decision and they may make recommendations to councellors 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.

We can't go into too many details as it is very early days, involved some private information and work still needs to be done but hopefully we can give fuller details very soon.

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

They have no plans to ban dogs or to ban dogs with excemptions. 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!

They understandably do not have the resources to staff all 43 Cemetries, 9-5 to prevent issues and a big part of their work is understanding grieving people and the needs of people - and that involves understanding some people need their dogs.

They do state, as we and the other petition have stated all along, that behaviours in cemeteries at times need addressed, not just in relation to dogs. There are many issues that need addressed such as littering, social events (yes, social events such as parties in a cemetrey- our mind was blown), human defecating and so on.

They have some ideas re this but this will take time and planning. We might be able to be a part of this which would be great, even if we're not we know that they are planning improvements.

We can hopefully update you soon - we hope to have another meeting possibly next week.

For now please keep signing and sharing, just in case, and if you want to get involved in any improvement work please get in touch.