Council 'picking' on Bognor dog owners

The animal lovers have started a petition to get Arun District Council to rethink its intentions to require their four-legged friends to be kept on a lead throughout Hotham Park.

The council also wants to ban dogs from the fenced conservation area and boating lake in the newly-restored open space.

The park is a popular venue for walkies. A typical early morning can see between 12 and 20 dog owners in the park at any moment.

The dog owners gathered a few hundred names during last weekend alone as their protest gathered pace.

One of the petition organisers, Lorraine Dray, said: "The majority of the time we are the only people in the park. We feel we do our bit for it by keeping an eye on things.

"It's a park for the town and for everyone to use but we are being told not to do that.

"People who live around the town centre and don't have access to cars can't get anywhere else to walk their dogs. There is no other open space around here.

"The council is more willing to listen to one or two people who moan about dogs than the majority of us who just get on with enjoying the park.

"No one takes any notice of those who cycle through the park when they shouldn't. So why are the council picking on us?"

Valerie Brown, a fellow organiser, said: "Vets say dogs are getting fatter in general and they must have somewhere to exercise.

"We had dogs because the park was there and we knew we would have somewhere to exercise them.

"What's the point of having a nice park which looks better if it's empty?"

The Observer reported last week that the district council had started six weeks of formal consultation about a new dog order it wants to replace its current bylaws.

Comments received before April 9 will be considered by councillors before they make a final decision.

As well as stopping the current free movement of dogs around Hotham Park, the proposed dog order will also make it an offence to walk more than four of the animals together.

This is one of five offences detailed in the order. The others are failing to pick up dog faeces, not keeping a dog on a lead, failing to do so when told by an authorised officer and allowing a dog to go into an area from which they are banned.

Many of the existing controls on dog behaviour '“ such as the summer beach ban '“ will stay the same.

Lorraine (46), of Crescent Road, has a miniature schnauzer called Lily, aged two, who she takes to the park each day.

Valerie (70), of Walton Road, walks Penny, her three-year-old Jack Russell, there. They use the visits to meet their friends with their dogs for a quick chat.

"It's a social group there," said Valerie. "I've met lots of people through walking my dog there. For some elderly people, it may be the only chance they get to speak to another person all day."

She and Lorraine are willing to compromise with a fenced-off area of the park in which dogs can roam free. But they still regard this as second-best to the current unrestricted access.

They both protested at the lack of information in Hotham Park about the proposed changes.

Copies of their petition can be signed at many pet shops around the Bognor area as well as Stacey's Caf in The Arcade, Young's 99p Shop in Station Road and Polka Dot Stripes in London Road.

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