fl0wer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Masses of Council money was allocated last year, > to upgrade the Camberwell Old Cemetery site. > > We have been over this several times already in > the EDF, but I feel now is a good moment for an > itemised bill which all of us can see. > > It is remarkable: > 1. how ineffective the new drainage works are > proving to be. > Few of the unevennesses around the gravesides - > which groundsmen have orders to strim continuously > in the summer 'in case people trip up', thus > wrecking the grass's value for biodiversity - have > been cured. > > 2. how ugly tarmac looks on the roadways, how > brutally the lopping of trees and shrubs was > carried out. > > 3. that NO recycling of mixed materials such as > plastic and spent bouquets, grass cuttings, glass > and other waste has been organised. The big bins > are destined for landfill. People, we are all > paying a premium rate for this. We are neither too > stupid to learn how to sort waste, nor to ask for > floral tributes to be made with 100% biodegradable > materials. > > I wonder where ratepayers draw a line between > 'value for money' from Southwark Council's own > gardeners, choices of engineers and landscaping > firms and tree surgeons, and 'hopeless London > clay' which might never be really suitable for > burial grounds anyway. > In future as the UK contends with weather extremes > like this, will families be happy to see memorials > reduced to these present conditions? It will soon > be far more peaceful and conducive to dignity to > scatter ashes in thriving, gently managed > woodland. We appreciate that burial is a > requirement in some religions. It looks as though > this method of laying the dead to rest needs > thorough reassessment in relation to this site. > Is Southwark planning merely to raze the rest of > its greenery, and dump fresh, expensive new > topsoil and commercial mono-culture turf wherever > the existing graves fall out of their time lapse? > This is what was achieved with the 2,000 new plots > of last winter's industry - acres as soul-less and > municipal as dormitories. Although not his ward, am sure J Barber could get answers to this, after all ED people buried there. Agree, Fl0wer.