Wellington City Council investigating new dog exercise areas
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
As you move north of Wellington space is not the doggone issue. With the Wellington City Council investigating new dog exercise areas, Ngaio Progressive Association Chairman David Hedgley says one local park could do with some relief from the paw prints. Ngaio has two dog exercise areas? located at Trelissick Park and Cummings Park and over the winter months? Trelissick Park ?takes a battering?. ?In the dog control area it doesn?t hold up well in the winter months. ?It?s a small area for a place with a large concentration of dogs,? says Mr Hedgley. The association has made a submission to have the dog exercise area in the park examined. ?The new [dog exercise] area being looked at is just north of Ngaio station,? he says. The association appreciates dogs? need space to move, but say when parks become badly damaged ?mashed up? areas need time to regenerate. On the WCC website, a current petition is asking for an extension of the boundary for the off-leash dog exercise area in Trelissick Park. So far 32 people have signed Lorraine Chin?s, from Broadmeadows, petition that says, ?[The current area] is not a large enough area for dogs to have a good run and to socialise.? In Glenside, there is not much concern with exercise areas, not as much as the numerous reports of roaming dogs. Glenside Progressive Association president Claire Bibby says the Council has plans for extending the dog exercise area up in Churton Park. However, she is concerned with local residents? not securing their dogs at night because they can be destroyed if caught in the act of attacking stock ? which has happened in the past. Pukerua Bay Residents Association Chairperson Pat Hanley says the only issue for their area is keeping dogs off the beach in summer due to health and safety concerns. ?There are restrictions for dogs being on the beach in summer for health reasons ?We don?t have an issue with exercise areas because there is the beach, farmland and a lot of room for people to walk their dogs around here,? he says. Other proposed WCC changes are; a requirement for Council permission to keep more than three dogs, adequate confinement of animals within an owner's property, and the feeding of animals in a way that doesn't cause nuisance. A new dog exercise area has also been proposed for Grasslees Reserve in Tawa.
