Dogs now allowed on Bracklesham and East Wittering beaches

Dog owners will be able to walk their pets on the whole of Bracklesham and East Wittering beaches after Chichester District Council removed the seasonal exclusion zones. Photo: Wendy Julianto from Pixabay

At a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday (October 6), members agreed to drop the areas from a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) as the rules had proved unenforceable.

The exclusion zones at Selsey beach will stay in place.

Penny Plant, cabinet member for environment, told the meeting that the council received 400 formal responses to an online survey asking people’s views about the PSPO.

The responses were split 50-50 between people who owned dogs and people who didn’t.

More than 90 per cent wanted the issues already highlighted in the PSPO – keeping dogs on leads, keeping them out of play areas, and dog fouling offences – to stay.

Mrs Plant said three-quarters of the responses were in favour of keeping the Selsey exclusion zone, while 60 per cent were happy to see the Bracklesham and East Wittering zones dropped.

Deputy leader Susan Taylor raised the issue of professional dog walkers, who walk several dogs at once.

She was told that, while some other authorities did control where such people could and couldn’t walk the animals, the council did not have enough evidence to suggest it was needed in Chichester.

Simon Ballard, environmental protection manager, said: “If, over the course of the three years of this proposed PSPO, we receive further evidence, then that could be included in a further revision of the PSPO at that time.”

Karen Dunn , Local Democracy Reporting Service