Cemetery Junction cemetery, improving tree cover meeting #rdg

The consultation meeting yesterday on improving tree cover at Cemetery Junction cemetery went well. We had approximately 40 people turn up – and I am not including speakers to inflate the numbers!

At the meeting we heard about the history of the cemetery and plans for the future.

There is a tree walk planned in September. See the link below:

http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/hod015443e

A new tree will be planted in Cemetery Junction near to the public toilets where there is currently a cracked old planter. Approximately 8 new trees will be going in the cemetery – succession planting for some of the old specimens approaching the end of their lives and continuing the avenue of lime trees towards the arch. There will also be some native hedging going in at the arch end.

In the autumn there will be some clearance of self seeded saplings growing out of and damaging graves and the same goes for ivy. This was the most controversial part of the meeting, but I think a way forward can be found that balances wildlife habitat, health and safety and the wishes of relatives of those buried there.

The initial work will be done with a tidy up day in November and a planting day in February – volunteers welcome.

It was stressed that this is just the start of things. Hopefully we will manage to form a resident led friends of type group which will continue to improve the cemetery – seating, interpretation boards, more wildlife habitat etc.

The next step is a smaller meeting to go through the plans in detail. If you'd like to be kept updated, please get in contact – rob@readinggreenparty.org.uk