Dog PSPO Set To Be Approved In December By Councillors

A consultation about the introduction of a Public Spaces Protection Order to replace dog control orders in force across the County Borough has now ended with 870 people taking part.

Back in September we reported on the ‘ruff justice’ plans that were before Scrutiny at the time, which are now being brought forward to the Executive Board. The full report is not yet public ahead of the meeting on the 13th December.

Wrexham Council’s Lead Member for Environment and Transport, David A Bithell, said: “Over 870 people and organisations responded to the consultation and around 69% of those were dog owners who live in Wrexham.

“I will be taking a report to the next Executive Board with recommendations about the PSPO for dogs across the county borough and will be taking the results of the consultation into account. I would like to say thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to this consultation.”

The consultation centred around retaining the current restrictions of owners having to pick up their dogs faeces, excluding dogs from bowling greens, marked sports pitches and play areas and putting dogs on a lead when asked to do so.

It also proposed putting dogs on leads around visitor centres and car parks in the country parks of Ty Mawr, Alyn Waters, Bellevue Park and Nant Mill Visitor Centre. Owners would also need to place their dogs on a lead on a public road and pavement.

The survey results have been summarised in percentages, with the open form question was only replied to by 43% of respondents.

• Around 69% of those who completed the survey were dog owners with many living in Wrexham.
• The previously disclosed figures note that the ‘greatest support’ was given to enforcing control of dog fouling followed by excluding dogs from sports pitches, children’s play areas and bowling greens.
• It added that the third highest support was given to enforcing dogs on leads on public roads and pavements.
• 86% of those who took part agreed with continuing with the areas covered by the present Dog Control Orders covering dog fouling, exclusion areas and dogs on leads when requested by an Authorised Officer.
• 89% showed support for the option of dogs being required to be kept on a lead along a public road and pavement.

However 68% of respondents felt that dogs should not be required to be kept on leads in open spaces and parks all the time. This was one question with the lower number of respondents (728), with 57% being the figure if overall survey results were taken into account (27% felt they should be required, and presumably 16% did not care).

If introduced the PSPO will be enforceable and fines of £75.00 will be issued for breaches of the Order, however as we recently reported on the town centre PSPO the numbers of tickets issued can be surprisingly low.

(Pic: The cutest puppy picture we could find in our archives.)