When and where owners can exercise dogs could change
Changes may be made to the rules around dogs on Dorset’s public spaces – including beaches
A public consultation is about to start for the new orders which will come into force when the existing regulations come to an end on December 31st.
Among the suggestion made at a council meeting this week is that dogs should be allowed to be exercised between 6pm and 10am even during the peak summer season at Weymouth, and that the season when dogs are excluded from the main beach be reduced to only June, July and August.
In Weymouth there is also a proposal from the town council to move the dog exercise area from near the Pavilion to the area between the Jubilee Clock and the old Pier.
Another question to be considered is whether or not to continue with the Town Beach restriction at Lyme Regis where dogs can only be exercised on a lead outside the season, compared to other beaches where they are allowed to run free. Lyme Regis town council has previously asked for a complete ban on dogs on all the beaches.
Dorset Council is expected to start the public consultation in mid-June running until the third week in August to then be followed by a discussion on the public responses, with the new Dog Related Public Spaces Protection Order expected to be adopted in November to come into force at the end of the year.
Dorset Council environmental protection service manager Janet Moore told councillors this week that the 2020 consultation had attracted 8,500 responses, one of the biggest ever.
She said that most of the points from the existing orders will go into the consultation process but it will also raise issues which have divided opinion.
She said that complaints about either the order, or breaches of the order, have been declining – from 65 in the first year, to 31 last year and only 11 this year, which, she said, might be because people were generally content with what was now in place.
She conceded that enforcement remained an issue with obvious difficulties in observing breaches as they occured and then being able to take enforcement action.
Weymouth councillor Ryan Hope told the place and resources committee he did not support moving the dog exercise area along the beach, but said he welcomed that fact it would be consulted on.
He made a plea to allow dogs on the beaches after 6pm and before 10am, even in the peak season, and to shorten the season when dogs are not allowed, apart from in designated zones, to just June, July and August, rather than May to the end of September.
“It must be recognised that dogs, and dog owners, are a big part of our economy. People like to bring their dogs with them,” he said.
Dorchester councillor, Les Fry, a dog owner, said he was surprised at the proposal to change the area of beach designated for dogs because the Pavilion end, effectively, had two walls to contain dogs off leads.
He said he also had reservations about relaxing dog exercising between 6pm and 10am – although said he would support it if every dog owner, were responsible and picked up after their pets, “which, we know, they’re not,” he said, “it would be terrible if a child coming to the beach slipped up on something.”
Verwood councillor Toni Coombs said dogs using public spaces was also an issue in the countryside. She said Potterne Park, in her area, although it has a dog ban in place, continues to be used to exercise pets.
“People just carried on as if nothing had happened… If all dog owners were good and picked up, it would be ok, but they’re not,” she said, telling committee members how parents lined up before sports matches to do the ‘poo pick’ from dogs which should not have been there in the first place.
“How do we enforce it? It’s just ignored,” she said.
“Residents will continue to let their dogs run free because it’s a large flat area, unless we take action.”
The committee heard it was recognised as a ‘hot spot’ for problem dog walkers and said plans were being dicussed to possibly use CCTV to catch errant owners.