I VISIT St Helens Crematorium at least twice a week to pay my respects and lay flowers.

Over the past couple of years I have noticed an increase in dog walkers at the crematorium. It seems to be popular place to walk a dog during the day even if the dog owner is not going to lay flowers or visit a departed.

My concern that I have witnessed many times is that many of the dogs are unnecessarily off a lead and are allowed to run free around the gravestones and consequently urinate on the grass and gravestones. They also leave dog muck here and there that does not get picked up.

It is up to the family to clean gravestones, the council do not clean them. There are very few if any dog muck bins in and around the crematorium.

I find this very disrespectful to see, thankfully the graves I visit do not seem to have been urinated on but I would be so upset if they did.

The crematorium is a beautiful peaceful place for people to pay there respect;  it is not a park. There are plenty of open spaces to walk a dog in St Helens.

Dog walkers should be made aware to keep there dogs on a lead. 

St Helens resident and dog owner