Letter: Paddington Old Cemetery-why we think Brent is acting in an opaque and undemocratic manner

 Dear Editor

I am writing to tell your readers why we are so bitterly disappointed about Brent Council’s decision to instruct dog owners to keep their dogs on a lead in Paddington Old Cemetery (POC) and our belief that Brent is acting in an opaque and undemocratic manner, justifying their decisions with 'fake news’.

The consultation was a fiasco from the outset, with biased questions with options like this ‘do you agree/disagree that dogs should be allowed to defecate on graves?’

 

We engaged with the process and contributed to the consultation, but it has been ignored, and POC’s exemption allowing off lead walking has now been removed.  

 

Brent claim that:

- Complaints have increased to 74 last year but they refuse to tell us how many individuals this includes. For example, through an FOI request we know that when there were 65 complaints, 11 were individual complainants making multiple complaints

 

- They claim they are working for the community yet even in their own consultation, the majority of respondents wanted to keep off-lead walking (61% vs not 39% see chart below) and they have ignored the survey evidence that we make POC safer as it is busier daily and year-round with dog walkers. We were supported by the local school (Salusbury Primary School whose green space is in POC) that a thriving dog walking community has made the space safer for children.  We have also shown that women walking alone feel safer because it’s busy (unlike all the other cemeteries in Brent which hardly any people walk around).

 

 

- They are also ignoring the fact that people will be forced to drive to other places to exercise their dogs. Their two alternatives (Tiverton Green - small with open multiple gates, and Paddington Recreation Ground already busy and too far for many) are unacceptable. 

- They have rejected the idea that the poo on graves could possibly be from foxes on the basis that there is ‘no evidence’ for that despite it being more in keeping with fox behaviour to poo on an actual grave.

 

Brent is offering to consult on a fenced off off-lead walking area, but this could cause more problems for the homeowners on Tennyson Road where they are thinking of doing this. And could have more negative impacts on dog behaviour. They are also offering to set up a 'Paddington Old Cemetery Liaison Committee' which will include DOPOC (Dogs of Paddington old Cemetery). We have been asking for engagement from the very beginning and they have ignored us. That’s why we think this might be performative.  

 

They are simply not being honest with the community. Peter Gadsdon (Head of Cemeteries) who has just retired took control of POC in 2022 when it was taken away from ‘Parks’ with a ‘dig baby dig’ plan agreed with Mo Butt. 

There is no more than c.125 available burial sites left at POC so the only way they can achieve this is by building multiple new mounds even though they have many other cemeteries in Brent which are just traditional cemeteries i.e., only a few mourners visit every week. In doing so they are taking away a valuable green community space in a very built-up area. They simply do not see the human community and environmental story in all this. And they have never understood POC or care that destroying this precious green space will impact the whole community - not just the dogs.

 

Chair, DOPOC (Dogs of Paddington Old Cemetery)