Just five months into the job, ‘eco’ Mayor Sadiq Khan has given the green light to cut down woods and trees across all of London's cemeteries, for 'new’ burial plots. London boroughs claim they need space to bury the dead in the inner city. To get it the nature that...
Save Southwark Woods
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Sadiq Khan says “Drop Dead” to London’s cemetery woods and everyone buried in them
Mayor Sadiq Khan has finally issued an opinion on Southwark Council's grave destruction – cutting acres of woods to dig up and sell off thousands of graves in inner London. He’s all for it. The man who promised to plant two million trees for air pollution and nature...
Private Eye exposes Southwark burial scandal. Cemeteries no longer to Rest In Peace
Private Eye's latest issue exposes the scandal of Southwark's Camberwell Cemeteries. David Ziggy Greene’s Scene and Heard tells how cemetery owners across the UK are destroying history and nature for profit. Southwark Council is cutting down inner city woods to get at...
Deforestation is happening now in inner London. Sadiq Khan please meet with us – it’s urgent!
Deforestation is happening now in inner London. Today, the Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries, the Save Southwark Woods campaign, have written to the Mayor of London asking him to meet with them urgently. The hundreds of acres of woods and tens of thousands of graves in...
Cllr Wingfield announces out-of-borough burial is on the cards
This week, at Southwark’s annual Parks Conference, Cllr Ian Wingfield responsible for Southwark’s cemeteries announced he is to explore out-of-borough burial provision. The Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries (FOCC) – the Save Southwark Woods campaign – have written to...
Appalling Southwark Labour Councillor behaviour at Community Council – formal complaints filed
At the Nunhead & Peckham Community Council on 29th June, Southwark’s Planning Chair Cllr Nick Dolezal told the Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries to ‘F*** off!’ The Friends Group has made a formal complaint. Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries, incorporating the Save...
Harriet Harman: 10 reasons why Southwark’s inner city burial project is not – and never can be – viable
Today, in a letter to constituency MP Harriet Harman, the Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries set out the 10 reasons why Southwark’s inner city burial project is not – and never can be – viable. Harman has consistently ignored requests from the Friends Group and...
Area B worth more than burial – Friends Group launches Public Ideas Competition
Southwark Council wants to take ANOTHER FOUR ACRES of public inner city land for car parking and private burial plots – steps from Honor Oak Park station and next to the Recreation Ground. Today, the Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries has launched a Public Ideas...
STOP SOUTHWARK! Enough is enough! ANOTHER 4 ACRES of inner city public Open Land grab for burial and car park
ANOTHER 4 ACRES of public green space are to be taken for less than four years of private burial plots at Honor Oak Park. Southwark Council wants to sell inner city public Metropolitan Open Land for private burial plots. These 4 acres at Area B, the old plant nursery...
Southwark Council ADMIT to not telling burial plot buyers that ‘new’ plots are over the dead
This week, Southwark Council admitted to not telling buyers that ‘new’ burial plots being sold in the Camberwell Cemeteries are over the dead. And the Councillor in charge is refusing to mention it on their website. He claims it is not the Council’s responsibility to...
Stop destroying our woods and family heritage, Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries tells Southwark’s ‘Family History Buff’
The Friends of Camberwell Cemeteries and campaign Save Southwark Woods have today written to Cllr Ian Wingfield demanding Southwark Council stop the destruction of inner city Camberwell Cemeteries, stripping family memorials and cutting down hundreds of trees....
SSW leaves Church Court process when told “Don’t mention the trees”
Yesterday, SSW withdrew from the Church Court hearing under threat of being charged tens of thousands of pounds in Southwark Council’s legal costs. SSW is fighting the UK’s multi-billion pound burial industry which wants to dig up or mound over every old grave to sell...
Church of England: No. We can’t ask Southwark Council to stop destroying woods and graves – even temporarily
Today, the Diocese of Southwark’s Consistory Court said it had no power to stop Southwark Council proceeding with works on consecrated land ahead of a hearing into those works. Southwark Council has applied for permission to clear two acres of inner city woods to...
Residents to meet outside Southwark Cathedral Monday as rare Church Court Hearings begin
On Monday at 1.00pm, community groups and residents will meet outside Southwark Cathedral as the Church's Consistory Court Hearings into the fate of the Camberwell Cemeteries begin. A huge public outcry with over 800 objections to the Church has triggered the rare...
Public outcry triggers rare Church Court Hearings on felling woods to mound over the dead in London – process starts Monday
A small community in south east London is forcing the Church of England’s Consistory Court to rule on a council’s massive grave mounding programme. The Diocese of Southwark was swamped by over 800 objections to plans by Southwark Council to fell acres of inner city...
New York Times values Southwark’s disappearing woods
Today, the New York Times recognised the beauty and value of Southwark’s woods. [Paywall] Yet Southwark Council are right now destroying ACRES of these woods and thousands of old graves for inner city burial. Woods that the New York Times says to visit - even if you...
What?? No Feasibility Study on Southwark’s obscene multi-million pound project to dig up the dead??
WTF is Southwark Council playing at? The destruction of the Camberwell Cemeteries is all based on ‘re-use’ - and they haven’t even done a feasibility study to see if it’s possible??? SSW has just seen a notice published deep in Southwark’s website that a so-called...
SSW demands Jeremy Corbyn suspend Southwark Leader Peter John now for discrimination against Muslims and Jews
Save Southwark Woods has today written to Jeremy Corbyn demanding the suspension of Southwark Council Leader Cllr Peter John from the Labour Party for his Council's discrimination against Muslims and Jews. It is one thing to make anti-Semitic remarks. It is quite...
Lucky Shakespeare wasn’t buried in Southwark
This week is the 400th anniversary of the death of Southwark’s most famous resident, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s Stratford headstone begs for his bones to rest in peace: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forebeare To digg the dust enclosed heare; Bleste be the man...
Southwark Council Misses Deadline – Fails to Defend Desecration of Graves and Felling of Woods
Southwark Council has missed the 21 day deadline to present their case to the Church against more than 800 objections to the Council’s development of Camberwell Old and New Cemeteries. The Diocese of Southwark is preparing a hearing in the Church Consistory Court into...
Southwark Council desecrating the graves of the poor. Where have the headstones gone?
Today, Save Southwark Woods asked Labour-run Southwark Council to stop desecrating the graves of the poor and demanded to know: Where have their headstones have gone? New photos from the 150 year-old Camberwell Old Cemetery in East Dulwich show Labour-run Southwark...
Southwark Council denies it’s committed to reusing graves – even though Councillors decided to do so back in 2012
Southwark Council has denied to the Evening Standard it is committed to the mass exhumation of the remains of thousands of dead buried in the Camberwell Cemeteries, to sell off their graves as ‘new’ burial plots for profit. For a video about Southwark Council’s...
Heritage, Nature and Beauty of all Britain’s Cemeteries at risk
We may be about to lose the heritage, nature and beauty of all our British cemeteries - due to new laws which enable graves to be dug up or mounded over and "reused". This video was filmed in Camberwell Old Cemetery in East Dulwich in March 2016. Southwark Council,...
A Year constituted as Save Southwark Woods
Dear Friends of Southwark Woods, the Camberwell Cemeteries, On this day last year, April Fools Day, Save Southwark Woods was constituted as a community group to defend the Camberwell Cemeteries (in East Dulwich and Honor Oak) and to make them nature reserves. We are...
Life After Death at the Camberwell Cemeteries
You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone - especially when it’s hiding on your own doorstep. On Easter Monday, local community group Save Southwark Woods is holding free tours of Camberwell Old and New Cemeteries in South London - two of the rarest jewels in...
‘Trees: Our Cities’ Lungs’ – a child’s story
8 year old eco warrior Caity McDonald from Nunhead in South London has teamed up with her 26 year old cousin, professional illustrator Ella McLean to create a powerful and heartfelt animation. The hand-drawn film highlights the madness of destroying and clearing...
Southwark’s One Tree Hill burial project to cost the earth
Today, Save Southwark Woods has again demanded Southwark Council stop the madness of cutting down inner city woods to bury people. Southwark Council is to fell as many as 60 trees for 145 new graves, nine months burial, on historic One Tree Hill in the latest stage of...