Council extends laws to tighten the leash on dogs in town park

Cheshire East Council has extended three public space protection orders, including the control of dogs and dog fouling in The Carrs for a further three years.

The council must review the orders after a three-year period and a number of current PSPOs were due to expire in October this year.

The three orders relate to:

• alley gating;
• dog fouling and dog control boroughwide and;
• specifically dog fouling and dog control at Carrs Park in Wilmslow

The council held a six-week public consultation on all of three of the orders. Following a meeting of the environment and communities today (Thursday, 28th September), the orders have been extended for three years.

The borough-wide PSPO, introduced in November 2017, that applies to dog fouling and dog control, makes it an offence punishable by an on-the-spot penalty if an owner fails to clean up after their dog.

A further separate order relates to The Carrs where there has been a specific problem with dogs and dog fouling. A bespoke order has been in place within the park since 2012 to control dogs off leads and to limit the number of dogs per owner.

The order makes it an offence for a person in charge of a dog, without reasonable excuse, to fail to pick up after the dog and for one person to be in charge of more than four dogs in The Carrs.

It is also an offence for dogs not to be kept on leads in specific areas of the park, such as north of the River Bollin, which includes both the playing fields and children's play area.

Additionally, it is an offence for a dog owner not to put and keep a dog on a lead when told to do so by an authorised officer of the Council. This area would cover the whole of the park, with the exception of the area covered by the Dogs on Leads order.

The consultation on alley gating required members of the public to comment if they did not agree with the council's intentions to extend and vary the current order and no such comments were received.

Councillor Mick Warren, chair of Cheshire East Council's environment and communities committee said: "There is a serious public health risk to leaving dog mess in public spaces, especially to children, so my warning today is pick up your mess or risk picking up a fine.

"The council is committed to ensuring that our existing public spaces protection orders are effective and continue to protect the community from the minority who irresponsibly leave their dog's mess behind or fail to control their dog. Additionally, we want to continue to protect people within our gated alleyways from crime and anti-social behaviour incidents."

"While we are simply extending these orders today, there may be a requirement in the future to carry out research to establish whether there may be a need to increase our powers going forward. The majority of dog owners in Cheshire East are extremely responsible, but some people are failing to do their bit."