more work scheduled for Camberwell Old Cemetery

[fl0wer]

Dear friends and neighbours, the following letter is being sent round from Southwark Council's Service Development Officer, to all of us near Camberwell Old Cemetery:

"I write to inform you that excavation work will be undertaken at Camberwell Old Cemetery for two weeks from 2nd - 13th September in order to carry out site surveys.

Details of the work:

* Survey work within fenced section of Camberwell Old Cemetery West (adjacent to the Underhill Road boundary)

* There will be some vegetation clearance to provide vehicle access to the site

* Two mechanical diggers will be on site throughout the period

* The operation of machinery on site will be restricted to 8am - 5pm & weekdays only

* 17 trial pits will be excavated to test soil conditions

* All pits will be immediately back-filled once soil samples are collected

* A cemetery specialist will closely monitor all activities

* This section of the cemetery will remain secured with public access strictly prohibited

The area has been identified for development in the programme set out in Southwark's Cemetery Strategy and the investigations are to assess the site for new burial. Once this is complete plans will be developed for the site and full consultation on proposals will begin in 2014.

For further information on the Cemetery Strategy please visit our website http://www.southwark.gov.uk/parks

and click on the link to http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=21262#mgDocuments

If you would like to be kept informed, please contact

Deborah McKenzie

Environment Department

Tooley Street

london SE1P 5lX

0207 525 5000 "

[olly]

I hope they don't mean the old, overgrown, wooded section. I thought they weren't going to be touching that until 2022-2040.

[fl0wer]

Part of this section has already been fenced off and brush-cleared, with signs explaining it's to deal with Japanese Knotweed.

There's no longer a group of 'Friends of the Cemetery', alas. The local Wildlife trust have various active groups, the one I know about is nearby at Sydenham Hill Woods.

It is a horrible thought that the wildlife in the Old Cemetery has not enough protection, especially here in the city. To many it means so much to have a haven - and grieving relatives enjoy the green space of woodland as much as the memorials. Many I have spoken to would prefer to have the left-alone woodland as a site for ashes to be sprinkled, rather than insist on more clearance and tombstones.

[JDR]

U fortunately if there is a knotweed problem, they will need to use strong chemicals as otherwise if it spreads t adjacent property and causes damage they will be financially culpable. There are issues with home insurance and house purchases with regards t this and the law is pretty clear ( and quite frightening if you have it!)

Also, despite the wildlife there is a human issue of where do the bodies go? The cemety is a great place and as much as I'd like to prioritise the wildlife, it isn't always practicable or possible.

[Clare11]

Why do we have a Camberwell NEW cemetery if all they keep doing is jamming people into the old one?

They've already cleared a large swathe of the overgrown section, which looks awful.

Perhaps people should either stop dying and wanting burials, or buy their plots from what's available.

I hate to think of the amount of remains on top of remains that's accumulating in these reused sections.

What happened to the 'Friends' society? I was a member of it.

[fl0wer]

Here is my suggestion:

that everyone interested in getting Southwark cemeteries, especially Camberwell OLD to become the most successful green spaces possible, goes to see Tower Hamlets cemetery. A magazine-length piece about it's here on film (excellent recent wildlife programme) =>http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b039tt22/Britains_Big_Wildlife_Revival_Urban/

Let's persuade our local councillors to visit that example of best practice too, James Barber and Renata Hamvas. People spending taxpayers' money on the whole environment of Southwark, investing for now and far into the future, could talk to the knowledgeable groundsmen there, and learn ALL THEY CAN about reducing harm to the precious biodiversity re: day-to-day upkeep.

All we write won't do as much good as seeing in reality how beautiful a sensitively managed tree and grassland area can be.

A civilised ED shows understanding about choices and requirements for burial.

In some families and some religious groups and some cultures, the provision of a traditional grave & tombstone, and regular visits afterwards with fresh flowers and so forth, is inseparable from giving due respect to the dead, and from the importance given to grieving.

For others amongst us actual burial is less central - a cremation & later scattering of ashes is fine. The cemetery could contain some sacred woodland for ashes to be scattered, a place where we know our families can always find peaceful semi-wild green spaces and remembrance is a gentle walk and a comfortable bench or two rather than a crisp little formal park.

Elsewhere in the UK you can actually have both - the woodland and the burial which is marked by another tree being planted rather than a headstone. In the centre of Camberwell OLD there is a less-mown area with memorial trees being added.

But over 300,000 people are already buried within Camberwell OLD. On average every gravesite has already been used 4 times, over centuries. The rules about re-using gravesites being quite strict, the next areas under consideration WILL be beneath the sycamore-thick wild section, which contains many tumbledown graves almost 100 years old, now approaching the time they can be redug.

For another few years Southwark will concentrate on burials being in the freshly refurbished section which was planned to take 2,000 new burials.

This gives us all an opportunity to research and gather ideas.

[fl0wer]

Topic resurfaced on the TV News today.

An extensive chart appears below news item, showing you where in the UK has least/most room left for burials and gravestones. Permission already exists in London for re-use of gravesites after 75 years, and over most of the rest of the country, councils are applying for similar strategies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24283426

Unfortunately the broadcast did not add a reminder that cemeteries are valuable for biodiversity.

This point was made in the various nature programmes recently, but I believe it needs emphasis, because many of the alterations being proposed by councils,

e.g. to reduce cemetery trees & make room for a few more graves,

and to use fast growing, monoculture commercial turf,

will have predictably adverse impacts on wildlife. To prevent needless loss of habitat, all councillors and planners need to study the way these environments can be designed to offer maximum provision for biodiversity.

Councillors also need to be dissuaded from signing up for Nature-blind contractors and all the extra fossil fuel and man-hours that wrong decisions re trees and grasses will cost taxpayers decades into the future.

[kiera]

flOwer - have you thought of starting a Friends of Camberwell Old Cemetery ? It seems that the woodland area is valuable for wildlife and is also much appreciated by local residents. Yet there is no wildlife-friendly 'Friends' group to negotiate with the council to try to protect this area or to seek sympathetic development if it's too late now for protection. It needs a few people to get together and get organised. Would you or anyone else be willing to take the lead to get a Friends group started ?

[Honoroaky]

I was a member of the Friends group too - we had a open day last June at COC to recruit new members but one of the 'key' or 'original' members was unable to meet until after the Olympics had finished and by then it sort of died a death(if you'll excuse the pun!) and no follow up meeting was held. Avril Kirby (or Kirkby) is the Cemetery Manager and was keen for the group to get going but it seemed hard to keep up the momentum...