Wednesday 20 April 2011

good news so far ....but the campaign must go on!

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Southwark Cabinet meeting yesterday. There was a good turnout both outside and in the room.


The Cabinet heard all 4 deputations:
from the Friends of Honor Oak Rec, from Hillyfielders football club, from Fairlawn school and from Friends of Peckham Rye Park.

The Cabinet decided to go for their short term plan which will provide about 8 years of burial using:
(a) the newly cleared site next to Honor Oak Park station (requires planning permission)
(b) an area of unused space in Camberwell New Cemetery
(c) an area of common graves in Camberwell Old Cemetery
Map link below

A full and wide reaching consultation on longer term proposals will be rolled out very shortly and the use of the Rec for burial will be included in this,
BUT two amendments were also passed:

One stating that the Cabinet's view is that the use of the Rec is the least favoured long term option

and the second, that Southwark will be looking to work closely with Lewisham and other councils to deliver long term solutions to the burial issues throughout London

We see this as a minor victory and would like to thank all the supporters who have been active and all those who have signed the petitions. Your voice was heard! especially through all the emails which were sent. The Cabinet specifically referred to the high number of emails and letters which they had received!

BUT the campaign goes on!
The consultation is critical for us!
We need to make sure that everyone in our area who uses the Rec is heard.
We have asked for all Lewisham residents who live within 1km of the cemeteries to be consulted as well as stakeholder groups
The draft list and consultation questions are on a link below, so please take the time to look and if you have any comments/suggestions which need to go to Southwark, forward them to fohopark@gmail.com
What we need to do now is to ensure that our view is heard loud and clear in the consultation process and that Lewisham Council is encouraged to engage actively with Southwark to provide long term alternatives to burial and thus protect the Rec.

click here to see the maps
click here to see the draft consultation process
click here to see the Southwark Cabinet papers item 8
click here to see the extract from the draft minutes of the meeting