Dear Editor,
The leader of Brent Council Muhammed Butt and his Cabinet have been accused of “treating voters with contempt” and “turning neighbours against each other” in Kilburn, with a completely farcical ‘consultation’ aimed at banning dogs being walked off leash in one of the few green spaces in that part of Brent.
Paddington Old Cemetery – a Grade II listed historic green space and graveyard - which was landscaped by Westminster Council in the 1980s – has been an increasingly popular location for dog owners (who make up nearly half of the local population based on London dog ownership figures) in recent years. The cemetery is a wonderful open space for local residents walking their dogs. There are large spaces with no graves where dogs can exercise without troubling anyone.
It is also a vital source of bio-diversity, with many rare species living there as well as thriving bee hives. Growing visitor numbers have driven away the drug dealers who used to plague the cemetery, and residents living nearby say that dog walkers have made their homes safer.
Things changed when management of the cemetery passed from Brent’s Parks Department to the Cemeteries team, who seem determined to extract as much money from the site as they can, regardless of the consequences to the community. Getting rid of dogs completely is being seen as the first step in that process.
Brent has amended its borough-wide Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) to force dogs to be on the leash in the cemetery without discussing it with community groups, and without telling anyone until two weeks before it was due to take effect on 1 October. Following a strong push-back from local residents, Cllr Butt announced an eleventh-hour u-turn and paused the implementation of the new regulations pending a consultation. Nearly 450 residents have signed an ePetition calling on Brent to ensure that this consultation is “fair, open, transparent and balanced”.
However, those hopes were dashed when the Brent Council’s survey went live last Friday. Marketing expert, dog owner and founder of the group Dogs of Paddington Old Cemetery (DoPOC) Eleni Chalmers described it as “one of the worst surveys I have ever seen in my life”.
Chalmers said: “The questions are leading and designed to gather evidence to support removing the freedom of off-lead dog walking in the cemetery, rather than being an authentic request for community input. The survey options are unbalanced and the language is loaded, such as options to ‘agree' with ‘dogs urinating and defecating on graves’. Most questions have a simple default option of ‘I don’t agree with dogs in the cemetery’. Further outrage has been caused by Brent’s edict that only one person in a household can fill in the survey and barring anyone who responded to the first after it was amended in the middle of the consultation. It simply breaks all rules of effective research. It’s clearly designed to get the outcome Brent wants - which is to remove all access to this rare community green space to dog owners.”
Brent has now taken the unprecedented step of sending letters by first-class post to residents in Kilburn and Queen’s Park to publicise the survey. This letter again uses loaded, heavily biased language, talking about increasing complaints about dogs “causing distress to visitors” and “causing disturbance to burial services” without providing any evidence to support this.
Residents have been left wondering what the cost of this exercise has been to a borough that consistently pleads poverty and has cut street cleaning in Kilburn to the minimum.
“This was a missed opportunity to have a genuine dialogue with all cemetery users about how to manage the increasing popularity of the cemetery,” said Cordelia Uys, a local dog owner and DPOC member.
“Responsible dog owners recognise that there are things we need to do to ensure that dogs and people visiting graves can co-exist, like reducing the number of dogs professional walkers can bring in and stopping people driving long distances to the cemetery to exercise dogs. This is what the consultation should have explored. Instead, they are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”
Chris Maggs walks her dog daily in the cemetery and also visits the graves of her great-grandparents there.
Maggs said: “It’s also important to remember that nearly half of the people who visit graves own dogs themselves and they often want to bring their pets with them. It’s simply false to try to pretend that dog owners and grave visitors are two completely different sets of people”
Brent’s Cemeteries team hit the headlines a few years ago when they dumped asbestos-ridden waste in the cemetery in a bid to create an artificial-raised section in which to dig new graves. [Editor: See LINK] As a result of the delays to that project they allowed the use of destroyed historic paths, and other unused areas in the cemetery, for burials. Michael Bond, the creator of Paddington Bear, is buried in one such pathway area and his tombstone is already leaning. After heavy rainfall his grave is often left temporarily underwater.
Why are Brent pursuing this path for a green space that is full to capacity with an estimated 200,000 bodies in marked and unmarked graves? Residents and visitors to the cemetery strongly suspect that once dogs are banned, the Council’s next step will be to investigate whether it can dig-up old graves and re-sell the plots.
Local residents including the Friends of Paddington Old Cemetery (FoPOC) and its dog loving counterpart DoPOC, want a permanent joint consultation committee with Brent on the future of POC in order to save it - for all members of the community.
Brent resident and dog owner
55 comments:
Readers may be interested in a 2019 statement by Frends of Paddington Old Cemetery welcoming dog walkers: https://www.fopoc.com/news/council-loosens-the-lead-on-dog-walkers
Dog owners only have themselves to blame. Spend 5 minutes there and watch any dog
I jog in the park daily - and have done so for years - I see very few grave visitors. What I see are children on bikes, dogs being walked properly and a beautiful space that isused by a much much larger community than a few grave visitors. I don't have a dog.
Can't blame dogs for Brent dumping asbestos, clean up.cost £1M or for planning to cut 1/2 the trees down, or spending thousands on a fake consultation
90% of visitors do so for leisure purposes
I'd much rather see a local park with dogs being walked than what we see in our local park which is full of street drinkers who urinate and litter in the same places everyday with no enforcement!!!
My husband and I have been walking our two dogs in Paddington Old Cemetery on an almost daily basis for over 3 years. What we have discovered is a warm, friendly and supportive community, that loves and treasures the beauty of POC. We, and the majority of other people walking their dogs there, are deeply appreciative of having such a gem on our doorstep. Yes, there are a few people who don’t, or can’t, control their dogs, and who don’t pick up their dog’s mess, but the vast majority are very careful to treat mourners and other visitors with courtesy and consideration, and who make sure to keep their dogs under control and pick up their mess. My husband and I put our dogs on the lead whenever we see a mourner by a grave, and often pick up the rubbish that has been scattered over night by foxes rummaging in the bins. We believe that our presence is helpful to the community as it helps to deter the drug addicts who often frequented Paddington Old Cemetery during the period about a decade ago when dogs were not allowed in POC. To quote from a local resident:
"I've lived overlooking the cemetery for over 40 years. I look at the cemetery every day from my house on Tennyson Road and feel a sense of ownership. I approve of the dog walkers presence, most of them are responsible and they have been self-organising since the issue came up, developing a code of conduct, policing other dog walkers and picking up rubbish as well as other dogs' faeces...I've been burgled from the cemetery side, I've seen crack smoking and drug dealing. The dog walkers are the eyes and ears of the place, if you drive them out there will be very few people in there at all. Other visitors are a minority.
I don’t have a dog. But these folks and their dogs enhance the space and shouldn't be attacked because of a few reprobates when they're trying their best to organise a peaceful truce with mourners and their own council."
Brent Council needs a total replacement. Cannot wait for the next local elections to get rid of the absolutely dreadful Labour leadership. Hoping another party steps up to the plate and campaigns on issues like this.
The streets around POC are covered in litter half the week (Council cut back on street cleaning); I saw a man smoking crack in broad daylight on someone's porch 2 days AGO (Council not interested), and there is a serious fly tipping issue (Council half interested, sometimes).
There are also 3 bollards that have been forcibly removed from a supposed car free green area on Priory Park Road, and cars are now parking in it. The Council say they don't have the money to fix it.
And this whole war on the local community that actually uses Paddington Old Cemetery is presumably costing Brent thousands - the enforcement officers, the printing and posting of the survey, the time, the legal team. It's appalling.
Brent Council - stop interfering in all the wrong ways in our lives. Start spending our council tax on actually improving the Kilburn area, not doing everything you can to ruin it and turn it into a drug riddled dump.
In addition to dumping asbestos in Paddington Old Cemetery, Brent Council has demonstrated it’s utter lack of understanding of the importance of conserving this special and historic green space, that hosts a number of increasingly rare birds and insects, as well as many ancient trees, by attempting in April 2024 to fell 43 trees in POC. This was only prevented at the last minute thanks to the intervention of Friends of Paddington Old Cemetery.
https://haveyoursay.brent.gov.uk/en-GB/projects/dogs-in-paddington-old-cermetery-consultation
Majority of high ranking Brent Council Officers don't live in Brent and our local councillors don't care - there is no proper engagement with us local people.
You write that "Brent has now taken the unprecedented step of sending letters by first-class post to residents in Kilburn and Queen’s Park to publicise the survey." Unfortunately not true.
Story has made national press...
"The Labour-run council accused of waging war on dogs
The debate over allowing four-legged friends to keep roaming a graveyard is a local disagreement that could set a national precedent."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/25/paddington-old-cemetery-labour-council-war-on-dogs/
'Though I can't recall whether it was delivered via first class mail I have the letter in front of me right now - dated 16th October 2024 and signed by Peter Gadsdon (Corporate Director for Partnerships. Housing and Resident Services)
Dog walkers are guaranteed all weather POC users and make this public space safer. A new south-east daytime hours entrance door to Salusbury Road/ Queens Park Town Centre is in Brent's power to support and action.
I too have the same letter dated 16 October 2024, and many other Brent residents who received it, all delivered via first class mail, an outrageous waste of council tax money.
Brent have an opportunity here to gain support from their constituents and understand the beauty and power of community spirit. I moved to the area 3 months ago with my two dogs and immediately made friends in the Paddington old cemetery. I walk there 3 times a day as live very close, and rarely see grave visitors - I always respect them when I see them and keep the dogs away. Such a small part of the space is a working cemetery and it serves as an opportunity for joggers, families, walkers, doggies, everyone to take a moment out of the busy London life - it is a tranquil place that we the community respect and cherish.
Removing the space to be shared by all/dogs will undoubtably bring in the drug users and dealers, and then what? A reversal? No one will want to visit or buy a plot then..
Surely at a bare minimum there is opportunity to find a balance - a time when each can visit.. I have to say I’ve never seen grave visitors at 8am but there are plenty of dog walkers and I (female) feel safe to walk alone with my dogs in the heart of Kilburn on knowing I’m surrounded by friendly community.
The whole situation is very sad and just doesn’t make sense - we would like transparency, fairness, and an opportunity to provide our collective voice to this process.
POC is only partially a cemetery, it has been an open partly landscaped green space for years. The vast majority of visitors are coming for walks, with or without dogs, for exercise, eat their lunch, read a book, with small kids learning to ride their bikes. Occasionally there are burials taking place (I’d estimate under 10 per year) or people visiting graves. It is usually a very friendly atmosphere and an oasis in Kilburn, which is not spoiled for lovely places to visit. All these visitors are keeping the local drug dealing, fly tipping, anti-social behaviour in check. I cannot comprehend why Brent Council seems determined to interfere and wreck a relatively well working system rather than focus on the abundant much more pressing issues in Kilburn: the drugs, the traffic, the awful appearance of the High Road, the betting shops, the fly tipping, the lack of street cleaning. I wonder in whose interest the council is acting? This is demonstrated by the recent “consultation”, a farce designed to support that dogs should be allowed in the cemetery not at all or only on lead. Surely the council must have received more complaints about the amount of slippery leaves on our pavements (leave alone the state of the pavements) than the amount of complaints regarding POC?
Why is Brent going for a culture wars approach to POC Kilburn?
When in parallel process 13 parks and 2 cemeteries parks are in 2024 receiving Lottery funding:
Lesnes Abbey Wood, Bexley - £3,468,000
Wharton Park, Durham - £2,454,400
Grosvenor and Hilbert Park, Tunbridge Wells - £2,358,100
Wyndham Park, Grantham - £875,900
Brompton Cemetery, London - £3,777,800
Chase Park, Whickham, Gateshead - £987,800
Bowring Park, Knowsley - £1,937,300
Winckley Square, Preston - £894,200
Rhyddings Park, Oswaldtwistle - £1,461,900
Peel Park, Salford - £1,408,500
Pump Room Gardens, Leamington Spa - £901,000
Belleisle Park, Ayrshire - £1,938,400
Hermitage Park, Argyll and Bute - £2,087,200
Wrexham Cemetery Project - £1,048,600
Warrenpoint Park, Newry - £932,000
Do you think anyone at Brent Council cares or has the expertise to complete the lottery grant application?
If Gateshead, Preston, Knowsley and Wrexham have a Lottery success application skill set, WHY NOT population growth, growth, growth Brent?
I have visited POC regularly for the last 32 years. I visit a grave of distant relatives and have walked my dogs there for years. I also walk there for pleasure. I have made wonderful friends among the dog walking community and treasure the green space for my well-being and mental health. I am a responsible dog owner. I avoid funerals and other people visiting their graves as I know not everyone is ok with dogs. I have also watched many antisocial interactions that have come and gone with the times. There is definitely less drug dealing now that there are more people walking with dogs and more families using the school green space at the bottom of POC. I have sadly had several aggressive people visiting graves at different times just come at me swearing and abusing me, when my dogs have been on the lead. And this has been very upsetting. However I also am grave visitor and will not be bullied by such people, nor Brent Council for that matter, out of my local cemetery and green space by their underhand and very biased tactics. I am very local and would be very affected if our rights were taken away to walk our dear doggies off lead. I have also spent much time with the older community in there who love to pat my dogs and spend time chatting because they are lonely. I implore Brent Council to seriously consider their actions in this situation. I feel they will lose support from constituents and have definitely lost the support of the community by their actions. I am worried that this will also stop the funding of the listed chapels which are due to be restored for community use as they need community support to gain this funding. They are literally digging their own grave deeper the more they abuse our local community and waste our precious money. And that they seem intent on wasting this money on letters that are also written with bias against dog walkers and sending wardens out to film and photograph us, who are not knowledgeable about dogs or the local people and how they use the space.
You describe lots visiting with dogs running feral which will continue
And look what at they mess they've made of growth, growth, growth Brent 😞
In our local park Brent Council Enforcement Officers go after older ladies who feed the birds with their photos, taken from cctv, on posters threatening prosecution or jail rather than the street drinkers who lioter all day, urinate and leave litter everywhere - I've given up going there as its very intimidating walking past groups of drunks.
I'd much rather see people out walking their dogs which is a wonderful way to connect with others.
There simply wasn't a significant increase in complaints concerning behaviour of dogs between the 2019 PSPO and 2034 to ban dogs off the leash.
The significant changes were in the management personnel. With a former dog warden taking over as Cemetery manager in late 2021 and "we need the money" Gadsdon taking control over Cemeteries in 2024 .Together they have relentlessly pursued an anti dog agenda.
Re this consultation. It could be a plan to make POC restricted conservation area residents access only, as per the gated squares with no public access in RBKC and Westminster. A condition for the Chapels being Lottery major invested in perhaps. There is community Brent and there is not community Brent, forward and backwards Brents being zoned....
If closed to the general public, CA family houses and businesses backing onto POC can open private gates in and POC can be made excluding and exclusive for 'right type of people' use only.
Brent purchased POC in December 1985. Where for City of Westminster disposing of the 'liability' of four cemeteries owned by the Council in1986 (including POC) would represent a council saving on upkeep and maintenance costs of £422,000 per annum. That's at1986 prices.
Does neglected and 1/3rd 'site allocated' since 2010 South Kilburn Public Open Space 2ha or Granville Road Public Open Space 1.4ha 2/3rd built on already with planning permission since August on its remaining 1/3rd ( policy masterplan pocket park renewed in 2010) pay the 'liability' transfer ultimate price for POC. POC is way better maintained/ invested in than SKPOS the only public park now remaining in massive scale car-free towers 45 ha population growth zoned 'regeneration' policies year 23?
A common future based on equity, Brent population de-growth conservation areas and Brent population growth areas?
Why seek to reduce POC users (dogs and owners), when POC is a Kilburn where Brent green infrastructure invests, maintains and plans for public health, wellbeing and local pandemics resilience?
The cemetery has built a community of users over the past years. Dog walkers are an important part of the mix. We meet new people and keep connected and dogs are part of that.
The move to ban us from.the cemetry by changing rules, spending council money on policing rules and ridiculous survey has undermined my support and respect for council actions . I dont feel there is a competent approach to issues around multiple usage of common spaces. Proper and genuine consultation please
Brent appears to be grossly underestimating the value of POC to the local community. Having lived in the area for 40 years, it was only once I began walking my dog in the cemetery did I meet other residents and feel more connected to the neighbourhood. The majority of dog walkers in the cemetery have overwhelming respect for the history and are curious about the graves and the lives of those buried there. They are respectful, attentive and want the best for the cemetery. It makes sense for Brent to have a consultation to understand how the cemetery is used; however, the questionnaire put forward is biased, unreasonable and seems to preordain an outcome. There are many options to ensure that mourners, grave visitors and dog walkers are able to share the space in harmony, but Brent seems to think it is only a binary choice. Please, Brent, use some compassion, nuance and common sense in understanding your constituents and ensuring the cemetery continues to benefit the wider community.
Dog walkers make Paddington Old Cemetery much safer and are a key community. Why does Brent seek to undermine that good?
Not a dog owner, but I know plenty of them.
When did dogs owners get equal say to those relatives who paid to bury their dead to rest in peace at POC?
Dog owners, please have respect, the world doesn't revolve around your preference to walk through POC. Dogs do not need to walk through POC, it is dog owners’ preference.
Is that an unfounded statement or a fact? And safer by what measure? Safer for an old person visiting a grave who doesn’t expect to have a dribbling dog jumping up on them?
It’s not ludicrously biased at all, it is a measured survey. And it is not anti dog, it simply asks if people would rather dogs in a cemetery or not, it is a reasonable question.
Badly behaved dogs are on the rise in POC. This is the cause of the complaints. It’s not just badly behaved dogs, the owners are throwing balls for the dog to fetch.
Exactly. The constant claim that they are all well behaved is so annoying. Many dogs are allowed to be out of control, and the abuse from the dog owners makes it worse.
Bet mist of those buried there and their surviving relatives would rather have dog walkers than drinkers and drug dealers in the cemetary.
All asbestos waste is classed as hazardous even below 1% Double bagged -labeled as Asbestos Hazardous waste and taken TO A LICENSED HAZARDOUS WASTE FACILITY.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/cdg/commonproblems/asbestos.htm
Removal of:
asbestos cement products, (eg roof sheeting and rainwater goods) provided the material is carefully handled/removed without breaking up; this includes work with asbestos cement which is weathered but not otherwise substantially damaged. Cited https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/licensing/non-licensed-work.htm
The asbestos type
Is it friable? Friable means easily crumbled or reduced to powder. So the more friable a material is, the more likely it will release asbestos fibres when worked on and the greater the risk of exposure. Work which disturbs more friable materials, eg asbestos pipe insulation, will tend to be NNLW and work which disturbs the least friable materials, eg asbestos cement, can normally be treated as non-licensed work.
How firmly is the asbestos bonded in a matrix? (For removal work only). Bonded in a matrix means the asbestos is coated, covered or contained within another material, such as cement, paint or plastic. ACMs of this type in good condition can usually be treated as non-licensed work. However where they are significantly damaged, and so more likely to release fibres, they will need to be treated as NNLW.
The material's condition
Has the material been damaged or is it in poor condition? Removal of ACMs in poor condition eg due to flood or fire damage, will normally need to be treated as NNLW.
Graves are being dug up at Willesden New Cemetery to make way for new graves at some point. PCO - survey might just be rather biased.
Where else are they supposed to walk?
We'd rather see a dribbling dog than a drunken street drinker or a drug dealer!
The solution is to give up dogs as they are bad for the environment. a medium-sized dog's environmental impact is the same as that of an average family car over a year. Dog meat also has a large carbon footprint. As we see from floods in Spain this is a luxury we can’t afford
Brompton Cemetery RBKC - £3,777,800 - 2024 grant from National Lottery is for shared cemetery and park use of the same space during daylight hours. I've even seen films being made there, so three uses all at the same time!
BC worth a visit to see how POC could be IF Brent are interested in Lottery grants.
Paddington Old Cemetery 10 hectares was purchased from City of Westminster in 1985 for £1.
Whereas South Kilburn 2ha 60 year old purpose built park public open space of 100 veteran trees is Land Registry registered as being 46 separate Victorian houses complete with 46 separate site plans of each. Divide and rule, where the tenanted 51 metre car-free housing/ no gardens 45 ha tall building zone existing central park never existed for Brent corporation colonial administrators.
Brent will not sell this 2ha green space to this community for £1 either, so park green investment can never begin even in regeneration year 23.
What a ridiculous comment - you cannot compare a dog to a car.
Dogs bring joy, comfort and companionship whilst also giving some of their owners a reason to get up in the morning. They encourage their owners to exercise, a friend lost over a stone in weight by walking their new dog, and they help you to meet people, another friend moved to the coast and soon got to know loads of people there by walking her dog.
Climate change is more likely caused by the damage to the tree canopy, the construction industry, needless flights and over cultivation of food for humans.
A Shirley Porter £1 cemetery?
Westminster got rid because of the maintenance costs involved when POC is not located in Westminster.
are you anti-science? Research has found a medium sized dog has the same carbon footprint as a car. The meat you feed your dog makes it worse. It is a luxury and bad for the environment. You can enjoy your walk in the cemetery without one, and observe the natural animals from squirrels to parakeets.
'Anonymous3 November 2024 at 22:26' says "a medium-sized dog's environmental impact is the same as that of an average family car over a year. Dog meat also has a large carbon footprint." - how does this compare to having children who will no doubt get driven everywhere in that family car and be fed on food shipped in from all around the world and be bought gifts shipped in from all around the world and will them go on to flying all around the world???
This is a cemetery. It’s where people bury their loved ones.
The council charge for the plots and they are on a lease which you also pay at the end of the term.
I don’t understand why people can drive in, park up and let their dogs out to run freely urinating on headstones that loved ones have paid a lot of money to mark where their loved one is buried. While saying prayers you can hear people calling their dogs because they have lost sight of them and don’t know where they are. I know of one lady who will not visit anymore as she’s scared of dogs and was chased around the grave. I had to step in and hold the dog by the collar till the owner came. Not even a sorry to the petrified woman.
I could just go on and on about situations I have witnessed.
Thanks for taking time to read. Berni
Even at Brompton Cemetery they have more respect for the deceased:
Do I need to keep my dog on a lead?
Yes. Dogs must be kept on leads at all times within the cemetery grounds, and may only use the designated paths indicated on park signage. Full details of areas where dogs are not allowed are listed in our Dogs in The Royal Parks policy document.
So how do you feel about street drinkers and drug dealers in the cemetary?
The POC Chapels can be seen nearby from Queens Park Town Centre but there is a 2 metre brick wall preventing public access. St Anne's Court sheltered housing has a little used car park where a daytime public access gate could be made or an access gate at Queen's Studios?
Brent Kilburn is very low on public green space nature access/ POC has amazing veteran tree habitats. With no definition in English law of what brownfield land is (its borough by borough with enormous decision -maker variation) it is for Brent to be transparent and state what future it wants for this £1 cemetery purchased for the Brent public good in 1985.
London cemeteries, like London public open spaces do get built on, take Granville Road Public Open Space 1.4 ha as a Brent Kilburn local example- its gone. Will it be full local replaced as Council policy pledged? NO.
Children are what pay for your old age and the ones who will invent, innovate and create a greener world. Your dog is a luxury, and Labour need to have an incremental ban on them, like smoking. So as of next year, nobody can buy a new dog. Unless for specific reasons like guide dogs or security dogs. Your labradoodle, for example, serves no purpose apart from contributing to our planet becoming inhabitable.
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