Rules may lead to fine for Shrewsbury dog owners
Wednesday 1st December 2010, 11:30AM GMT.
Dog owners could be forced to put their pets on leads when walking on council-owned land in Shrewsbury.
The plans are being discussed by Shropshire Council and Shrewsbury Town Council and would mean dog wardens could issue fixed penalty notices to owners whose dogs cause a nuisance in public. The rule change has been partly initiated after reports over the summer of dogs menacing members of the public.
Helen Ball, clerk of Shrewsbury Town Council, said: “We’re looking at Shropshire Council’s plans to potentially update dog control orders which they are reviewing at the moment.
“This could include recreation and sporting facilities and mean dogs must be kept on leads in those areas,” she continued.
“We discussed whether or not to extend this to the Quarry but decided that officers could tell people to put their dogs on leads and that would be adequate.
“We are training staff to raise awareness about issues with dogs so they can issue fixed penalty notices if a dog is off the lead causing trouble.”
She added the discussion followed reports of dogs causing distress to other park users.
“It is sensible to get people to put their dogs on leads in parks where dog fouling is an issue as staff have to clear the pitches before people can play which is a health concern,” she said.
Shropshire Council had not responded to calls from the Shropshire Star by our midday deadline.
In April two large dogs attacked another in the Quarry, knocking over a baby in a pushchair.
The baby’s mother, who was walking with her child and her pet husky, was left shaken and upset.
The baby was not injured.
It led to people calling for dogs to be banned from the Quarry or kept on leads and muzzled if they could not be controlled.
In 2007 the then Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council gave the go-ahead to allow dog owners to let their pets off the lead in the Quarry following the approval of amended versions of new dog control orders.
It meant pet owners were allowed to continue to let their pets run off the lead in the town park – excluding the Dingle – as they had done previously.
The decision followed a massive public outcry against the council’s original plans to force owners to keep their dogs on the lead at all times throughout the Quarry.
By Emma Kasprzak
Most Commented
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Planners ordered to stay on Newport visit bus
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
- The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff doesn't raise a smile
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Let’s hope this includes the hunt so that, instead of letting their dogs wander all over the road for miles they have to keep them under control. At the moment it seems to be one rule for those “in charge” (I use the term loosely) of the hounds and one rule for every oher dog owner.
Report abuse
Hear Hear!…but we all know it’s not going to happen
Report abuse
Hunt dogs don’t itimidate the public and other dogs. The point here is the aggressive, untrained & disobedient mutts that some sectors of our society seem to enjoy seeing intimidating others.
Report abuse
Bravo Sir, although you will get the usual pro-hunt country folk garbage that they have the right to disregard any law.
Report abuse
Here we go again, I would love to see the council try and enforce this…. oh yes thats right you are cutting jobs so there won’t be anyone to do it will there.
Typical snobbery and redtape, it’s common sense, if people can’t control their own dogs, then don’t have one. As for the 99.9% of owners that do, then don’t try push the problem onto us.
I for one WILL NOT take any notice if it gets passed and Miss Ball can certainly look out for protests over this. Ridiculous!
Report abuse
Not sure I agree wholeheartedly with this. Dogs NEED proper exercise, which just can’t be achieved when a dog is on its lead.
I walk my dog daily around the Reabrook area and then up to Springfield. Whenever another dog owner is in sight, we bring her to heel and keep her under control (putting her on lead if the other dogs is on the lead). Now I know that a lot of people don’t do that but …
Reabrook has a somewhat social dog-walking clan. It’s nice to go out and bump into people/dogs you know. Our dog has a couple of ‘friends’ that we always bump into and they tear about with each other for a few minutes playing and its great for them.
A dog will NOT get proper exercise on a lead, even if it is exendable.
Report abuse
Why do dog owners in the Quarry get different treatment?
Report abuse
The lights are burning late into the night in The Bunker as the council bean counters brainstorm their way to finding new lolly raising ideas. Heres one..how about doubling the fine for toothless supermarket lap-dogs?
Report abuse
Dogs should be on leads in the Quarry park – shame that the opportunity to introduce this rule is about to be missed! There are many who are nervous of dogs whether they are well behaved or not. There are children who will not play in the Quarry outside of the fenced off play ground because of the number of dogs running loose. Council staff are not going to be on hand every hour of the day to check on dogs. Fed up with opinions of dog owners being given priority over the opinions of the everybody else. Also fed up with dog owners who still refuse to clean up dog mess left everywhere by their beloved pets.
Report abuse
Council Officers can already direct owners to put dogs on a lead on most of these recreation areas if they are not under control, but instead of using these powers to deal with the nuisance, once again we see the council taking a blanket approach and requiring all dogs to be put on leads.
How about council staff do their jobs instead of penalising all dog owners?
Report abuse
Here we go again, the council making a mockery a proper dog owners who actually control their dogs. Why should they pay the price for the idiots that don’t?
Well with council job cuts on the way in January who is going to enforce this?
Please someone tell the town council to get a life…
Report abuse
good these stinking things ruin my area with their evil toxic foul stuff.
Report abuse
Here we go again, lets ban dogs from having a run in the parks, so where are we supposed to take them for a run? Most responsible dog owners are the people you normally see out walking their dogs and usually have them under control. So we will get penalised for the unruly few once again. Why don’t we stop children running amock on council land or in the Quarry, dropping their litter, pulling heads off flowers, kicking the gravel off the paths. Maybe children should only be allowed in ‘play area’ for a run, then maybe the council should make a ‘play area’ for dogs?
Report abuse
I have 2 well behaved dogs a Lab. and a spaniel that are never on the lead,So nobody and I mean nobody will tell me to put them on.I just hope that one of the council officers tells me to. Just keep your eye on the Shropshire Star for any outcome. The name above is my proper name.
Report abuse
And bring back the dog licence whilst your at it. And mandatory third party insurance. And mandatory behaviour classes (for pets and owners)
I’m quite surprised that we haven’t seen an article from MP extraordinaire, Demanding Dan, asking for the same. He’s been a bit quiet recently.
Report abuse
Did you know that drinking is banned from the Quarry, I have yet to see anyone enforce this. So good luck trying to enforce any other stupid resictions.
As alway we pay for the council to sit around coming up with more and more stupid ideas!!
Report abuse
I always have my dog on a lead whenever I go out in public with him, and bearing in mind he is a staffie (or “dangerous” as some people would say), when we are out and other dogs are off the lead, they always make a beeline for my dog, yet he doesnt bat an eye at them, so I think that providing that the dog can be controlled by the owner there shouldnt be a problem, but if they are like the countless dogs and owners I have come across while out walking, who let their dogs off the lead and blatently let them wander up to a dog that is on a lead in an aggresive manner, then there should be some sort of punishement for them owners, as this is when a dog could appear intimidating.
Report abuse
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here – there is far more danger from unleashed dogs to other dogs than to humans, and for that reason, I’d like to see all dogs leashed.
http://www.shropshirestar.com/latest/2010/01/07/pet-dog-killed-in-savage-attack/
Report abuse
I completely agree. I have my dog on a lead always. He can be a little nervous on walks as he’s a rescue dog who was beaten as a puppy. It infuriates me when other dog owners let their dogs come up to me off a lead.
Report abuse
My neighbour has had two ‘rescue’ dogs and being someone who has owned dogs all his life he knew that he needed to train them to come back off the lead if they were ever going to have a decent existence as a pet.
For some breeds it is rarely successful meeting other dogs when on the lead because they feel threatened and give off signals of fear and or aggression.
It always seems very undog friendly when dog owners who are not going to let their pet off the lead insist on walking in spaces where other dogs are off. They might as well walk their dogs on the pavement if they are never going to let them off as it does not make any difference to their dog where he is.
Report abuse
Will you all shut up about putting or keeping dogs on a lead, if you control your dog then fine, the council will not be able to enforce this at all, its just pompous nonsense coming from a town council who have lost the faith of the public in Shrewsbury.
Report abuse
A frosty Monday morning here again and another week begins. Aaahh..I wonder what marginally plausible money raising ideas are going to land on our plate this week. I await with interest. But I have to admire the creativity eminating from the Bunker I must say.
Report abuse
good they should be fined, normal middle class legal people should not fear, this is stop chavs with pit bulls who dont clean up after them, frankly those people shouldnt be allowed dogs but if they insist then the least we can do is claw back some of the cost of the street cleaning by fining them
Report abuse
Council Staff’ are at a low ebb, so they are looking for ideas that will hopefully take off
in the hope that their job will be SAVED.
It is so sad, that Council staff and or other staff anywhere, should be threatened with Redundancy, just because the pratts in Government are putting the ownus of their miscalculations on jo public.
People should make a STAND.
I have four gorgeous dogs, who are well loved,
well looked after and have at least 5 walks a day, first of the day around 6.a.m. summer/winter.
There are no more ‘doggy bins red in colour.
perhaps some dog owners’ are colour blind. ha.
Report abuse