Northants Dog Control Order Campaign
dog of the day
Northants Dogs, are a group of people living around the Northampton area, who are worried about possible dog control orders being implemented by Northampton Borough and County Council.
The Clean Neighborhood and Environmental Health Act came into effect in 2006 and has enabled local authorities the power to introduce their own dog control orders.
Whilst we agree that we must pick up after our dogs and ensure that dogs are kept out of children's enclosed play areas our main concerns are dog control orders by way of exclusion zones and enforcing dogs to be kept on leads at all times.
Exclusion Zones: Interpretation of the law allows the council to allocate areas where dogs are completely excluded. Anyone found to be in breach of this order will be fined £80. This can be any public land, not just children's play areas. For Example, in Manchester, dogs will be banned from large areas of 97 of the City's 134 parks, and in London, Camden dogs will only be permitted off-lead exercise in 10 designated 'exercise zones' most of which are barely the size of a tennis court. UPDATE - see "Good news for Camden" under archive
Dog Lead Enforcement: In any areas you are still allowed to take your dog, the council then has the power to make it illegal to walk your dog off the lead. This relates to any public land covered by the order and would include all paths, parks, open land, or any land owned by Northampton Borough or County Council.
Current Status
Currently Northampton Borough Council are in consultation with Northampton Parish and County Councils. Once this has been completed they will review and visit all open spaces across northampton and the surrounding villages to decide where the Dog Control Orders will be imposed.
We are hoping the results of this will be reasonable but because of the harsh measures recently taken by many other Councils across the country we are understandably concerned.
Click here for the Kennel Clubs latest updates on all Councils imposing Dog Control Orders.
Petition
There are two petitions we are asking people to sign;
Local - this petition is being collected by NorthantsDogs to present to Northampton Borough and County Councils. Click here to sign the petition
National - Click here to link to the 10 downing street petition to the Prime Minister to instruct DEFRA to amend the rules governing the applications for dog control orders.
