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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Totcemfriends on Saturday 29 June 13 12:38 BST (UK)
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Hi,
I and a few other interested parties are about to set up a 'Friends of Tottenham Cemetery' group and I was wondering if there were any other Friends of representatives on here? We are forming for a number of reasons.
a) Haringey Council has just given the contract for maintenance of the Cemetery to a company called 'Dignity Caring Funeral Services' for 50 years and some of us are a little worried about their proposed plans for redevelopment.
b) the site has never been fully catalogued ie. you can get an approximate area of a grave and it number but on site the graves aren't numbered and some gravestone have been moved.
c)As an urban Cemetery the biodiversity of the site is of great importance and needs consideration when redeveloping the area, we have a large lake that is used for nesting, a river and many green corridors used by hundreds of creatures to navigate safely.
So if there are any 'old hands' that have done this sort of thing before or have been doing it for a while, it would be great to hear from you.
Thanks Glynis
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The National Federation of Cemetery Friends is always pleased to welcome new groups and a handbook is available offering advice from experienced groups to newly created groups. There are several London based cemetery Friends groups who organise their own Open Days and on 21st/22nd September this year many of the London cemeteries will be open for tours etc as part of the London Open City weekend [when many historic sites and buildings are open to the public]. A great opportunity for newly formed groups to gain an insight and to meet friendly and helpful cemetery conservationists.
The Federation is consulted by the government on Burial Reform as many burial laws date back to the Victorian laws and updates are being considered. A major achievement has been working to stop local authorities going in with testers and laying down dozens of headstones under the guise of H &S and now the HSE has urged councils to use common sense and dignity and to halt the wholesale destruction of headstones which is not warranted on the grounds of safety whilst encouraging measured and sensible safety checks.
http://www.cemeteryfriends.org.uk/About-the-Federation-Contact-Us.php
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Thank you so much for the reply and information. I will be bringing to the attention of our members at our next meeting on Sunday and hopefully become members of the Federation.