Dear Members
Changes for dog walkers in POC
Many of you will recall that the borough-wide ‘PSPO’ relating to dog walking and requiring dogs to be on leads in Paddington Old Cemetery was successfully challenged and amended in 2019, providing for dogs to remain off-lead in POC.
In the last 48 hours Brent officers have informed us that this exemption was in fact removed last year and no longer applies, and that due to "heavy use", "poor management of dogs" and complaints from grave owners new notices will be put up and from October 1st Brent will begin to enforce the ‘dogs on leads’ rule.
FoPOC have strongly expressed our disappointment that Brent failed to keep us informed or to engage in any consultation on this move, and appear to have kept the decision from us until implementation. This lack of transparency, when taken with the recent concerns about poor communication on tree work, threatens all the trust we had built up over past years.
We asked and were given assurances only last year that the position in POC remained that dogs could be walked off lead, but we are now told that standard PSPO rules apply enabling additional restrictions on dogs. Brent claims many complaints are received each week about dog fouling and bad behaviour/lack of control (though a document we have now found on their website in relation to the PSPO only records approx 10 a year). The Friends group has consistently encouraged responsible and respectful dog walking behaviours with little assistance from Brent. Now it seems likely that we have no legal basis to dispute this change in practice. So from October 1st please aware there may be a requirement that dogs walked in the cemetery remain on a lead.
Should you wish to express your views on this change, the way it has been introduced and the lack of available dog off-lead space provision locally please email cemeteries@brent.gov.uk copying in friendsofpoc@gmail.com so we are aware of points made. You may also wish to copy your local Councillor.
We will write to the Brent officers involved to express our disappointment about the handling of this, and seek clarification as to when and how the PSPO was varied without the local community being kept informed.
Parking
We have also been told that Brent is reviewing parking in the cemetery and they have promised to discuss options with us ahead of any implementation. We welcome better traffic management in POC and have consistently argued for traffic calming/slowing measures too.
Trees and Conservation
Similarly we continue to press for news on tree planning and wider conservation issues. We will continue to make our views known while working with Brent to ensure the space is better cared for in future.
We will keep members informed of developments and we understand Brent will be providing advance notices about the change in rules in the next fortnight.
We encourage users to share the information in this note with interested non-members, and to express their views to Brent while ensuring that dog behaviour is appropriate at all times.
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