Woodland Trust’s dog walking licences come under fire

Concerns are being raised about the Woodland Trust’s plans to charge commercial dog walkers £500 for licences to operate on its land.

Dog walkers will need a separate licence for each Woodland Trust site – the charity currently manages more than 1,000 sites across the country.

The announcement has caused widespread concern among dog walking businesses across the UK, many of whom see this as both financially prohibitive and poorly communicated, many have found out about the scheme through social media.

Holly Smart, Owner of Ginger and Tails in Colchester, said: “I and many others in the industry were taken aback by the implications of this new scheme.

“A discussion I started on a national dog walkers’ Facebook group has since attracted substantial engagement, with professionals across the country expressing confusion and frustration over the unclear scope and cost of the new licence system.”

Smart says key points of concern include:

• The £500 fee being charged per woodland site, rather than offering a single licence covering multiple locations
• A lack of clarity over which specific woodlands are affected – the website instructs users to email the trust to find out
• No mention of how public rights of way through trust-managed land will be treated under the new scheme
• Questions over how the licences will be policed or enforced.

Smart added: “I wrote directly to the Woodland Trust’s Chief Executive, Dr Darren Moorcroft, outlining these concerns and the negative optics this policy could create for a conservation charity that relies heavily on public goodwill and donations. I received an acknowledgment of receipt but have not yet received a substantive response.”

The Woodland Trust was unavailable to comment at the time of writing.