Dog walkers vow to fight dog controls at Brighton nature reserve
Sussex dog walkers are preparing to fight a proposed ban on letting animals off lead in a new council nature reserve in Brighton.
Councillors last month voted to designate the former Waterhall golf course and adjoining land as an official nature reserve. The site winds its way through Waterhall Valley within the South Downs National Park.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee agreed to allow the public access to the land, but said it would pursue an order requiring dogs to be kept on a short lead at all time. Councillors from all three parties supported measures to control dogs on the site.
In a report which went before the committee, the council’s conservation manager David Larkin said: “Many groups of large numbers of dogs discourages individual dog walkers from using the site as they feel their individual dogs are threatened by the ‘pack mentality’ of the groups of dogs.
“The presence of dogs causes stress to livestock as dogs are perceived as predators. The potential for dog attacks on the livestock increases with the number of dogs being walked off-lead on the site.”
He added: “There are still plenty of opportunities to walk dogs off lead in the area less than a mile from Waterhall. Three Cornered Copse, Coney Hill Woodland and Waterhall and Braypool Recreation Grounds are unrestricted and Green Ridge only has restrictions when it is being grazed.”
However, Brighton Dogwatch – a Facebook group of thousands of local dog owners and walkers – is calling on the council to change its decision. The group has produced a report which proposes ways the site can be shared using fenced-off zones where dogs can be let off the lead. It is also calling for more dog poo bins on the site, and for car parking at Stanmer Park to be reviewed as it says many dog walkers have been displaced from there by high parking charges.
The group says the hundreds of dogs which use the site – which is says is estimated by the council as a thousand a day – will put pressure on other open areas if they have to go elsewhere.
Brighton Dogwatch said: “We hope we can find a way forward where the land can be shared and enjoyed whilst also improving the wildlife and area that Waterhall offers.”
