I have a dog to keep my SEN son happy. I am not sure where I am supposed to walk my dog as I do not drive. The Downs is criss crossed with roads and feels open, exposed and unsafe. Blaise is quite far away. Canford is pocket sized and really for young children and ( on Saturdays ) footballers. As for Stoke Lodge, they are trying to kick us of there as well. There are areas of SPNR where dogs should be on leads e.g by the lake but by the lower field, near the railway and Portway - what harm is there?

My dog is 14 years old and has been walking there his whole life. He just wants to sniff the grass and isn't hurting anyone. This is overkill by the council honestly.

I disagree with this petition. I was there last week and although there is a sign stating do not let your dogs off the lead nearly every person I saw had there dog off the lead. That same day there was a female mallard with ducklings and this mans dog ran and started to chase them. Luckily the ducklings ran for cover but the female duck was chased for a long time with the dog very close behind. She eventually managed to fly away and came back towards her babies in a panic calling them. This same man probably thought he was a responsible dog owner but in my eyes no one really knows what there dog is capable of. The dog just saw chasing the duck as a game and it didn't matter how much the man shouted at this dog, the dog just did not listen. I couldn't believe that even after what happened the man still didn't put his dog on a lead. At the end of the day not everyone takes responsibility for there dogs and this law needs to be enforced for them. The council has put the sign there for a reason, please think about the wildlife before signing this petition. Thanks for reading :-)