The Committee considered a report by the Environmental Health Manager (circulated previously) regarding the Public Spaces Protection Order Review 2024 (Dog Controls PSPO).

The Committee noted that the constitutional context under paragraph 9 of the report was incorrect and should have stated “Part 3, Annexe 1, Paragraph 1” of the constitution which allowed the Committee to make this decision without the requirement to refer to Council for the final decision to be taken.

The Environmental Health Manager highlighted the following:

·       On 1 June 2020 Members considered a proposed public consultation exercise on the implementation of a number of controls designed to address anti-social behaviour associated with irresponsible dog ownership.

·       The current PSPO will end on 31st of December 2023 and ideally we will be in a position to seamlessly move to a new order from 1 January 2024. Without it, we will have no provision for enforcement of dog fouling or other controls within the existing order. 

·       Appendices attached to the report.

·       The current PSPO that was in place.

·       New proposals for consultation.

·       Proposed new Paw Scheme.

·       PSPOs – proposal new design and visuals

·       Identification of hot spots.

·       Proposed new Dog Walking Code of Practice.

In response to questions, the Environmental Health Manager advised the following:

·       It was Council policy not to pick up dog fouling and the responsibility was to control.  This would be included within the consultation.

The Chief Executive advised that it was not the Council’s responsibility to pick up dog fouling on footpaths.

In response to questions, the Neighbourhood Officer advised the following:

·       It was a nationally recognised approach to utilise the notion to try to build community awareness and identify offenders of dog fouling.  It was a much better approach to engage with the community and it also had impact on psychological behaviour of offenders. This also enabled officers to use other techniques such as CCTV and identification of hot spots. In his experience, this had a positive impact.

·       Proposals also included restrictions on the number of dogs that must be kept on leads for professional dog walkers and a new Dog Walking Code of Practice was proposed.  Currently professional dog walkers were unregulated with no controls in place.  The new Code of Practice had been drafted based on guidance from Defra.  It was also proposed that conditions would also be included as part of licensing dog kennels. The Code of Practice would also be provided to landowners to enable them to control and moderate the number of people walking dogs on their land.

RESOLVED that the Public Spaces Protection Order (Dog Controls) Review and Consultation Process be approved and that the results of the consultation be presented to the Committee on 6 November 2023.