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Gail Levy, centre with 'Emmy', and fellow dog owners Caroline Dyatt, left, with Spanner, and Nicky Vallerfield with Tam |
U-turn allows dogs
off lead
Curbs on exercising pets dropped, but fines for owners of out-of-control dogs
NEW dog control orders – watered down by the Town Hall in the face of protests by animal-lovers – will still allow owners to be fined if pets are out of control.
Dog lovers have welcomed the Town Hall decision to scrap proposals to introduce restrictions on walking dogs off leads in parks and on the street. Councillors insist that the new fines regime will only be used in the last resort.
Three deputations addressed the council’s environment committee meeting on Thursday. Waterlow Park activist Desmond Quilty said: “Almost all dog owners are in agreement that enforcement on dog-fouling was appropriate, but dog owners have also been upset by broadbrush restrictions.”
Gail Levy, of Primrose Hill Pets, said she recognised there were problems with dogs in “certain areas of the borough” but could see no way in which restricting dog owners’ freedoms would ease them.
She added: “Proposals which have caused most concern to pet owners are restrictions that can be placed on them in exercising dogs. It is essential dogs are exercised freely, and, indeed, under the government’s welfare law this is an essential part of a dog’s life.”
The committee removed every proposal opposed during a consultation which saw more than 2,000 residents write in after the plans were revealed in the New Journal in February.
Even minor clauses in the original orders, such as restrictions on dogs entering shrubbery or ponds, were axed.
Lib Dem council leader Councillor Keith Moffitt told the deputations the apparent reverse showed this had been a genuine consultation. He added: “We’re involving you in the decision-making process.”
But Conservative councillor Keith Sedgwick voiced concern about problems on housing estates, where he said attack dogs were used as weapons by criminals.
He told the committee: “We’ve got to remember why this initiative was launched and that was to address the anti-social behaviour that makes life a misery for residents. This is an invisible crime.
“I urge you to think about the people who are not speaking as loudly as those who’ve been able to organise an articulate resistance.” Cllr Greene called for the housing department to investigate tenancy rules in regard to dog ownership.
What was proposed
UNDER the original dog control orders, owners would have faced a £1,000 fine from a magistrate or an £80 fixed penalty notice if they:
• Failed to clear up dog mess; or
• Failed to keep a dog on a lead on any land open to the air,
excluding 10 dog exercise areas.
Dogs would have been excluded from planting and shrubbery in open areas, catering areas, ponds and lakes and children’s play areas. The maximum number of dogs one person could have taken onto land would have been four.
What was decided
UNDER the orders approved on Thursday, owners can still face a fixed penalty notice or a magistrates’ fine, but only after a warning from council officers or police.
It will be an offence not to clear up dog mess. Dogs must be placed on a lead if an authorised officer believes the dog to be out of control. Dogs will be excluded from children’s play areas, fenced sports areas, multi-user games areas, nature conservation areas, flower and planted beds, Camden Square Gardens (North), Chalcot Square Gardens, Clarence Gardens (West) and Primrose Gardens (South). |
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