Shellharbour City Council is seeking community feedback on its Draft Shellharbour Dog Friendly Space Strategy 2019, which is on exhibition until Tuesday 13 August 2019.

The strategy details what dog-friendly spaces are, how Council manages these spaces and identifies actions for staff over the short, medium and long term.

These types of actions include but are not limited to, increasing community education on dogs in public spaces, investigating the provision of new dog friendly spaces and the ongoing management and regulation of these areas.

“There are 30,000 dogs in the Shellharbour City Council area,” said Shellharbour Mayor Marianne Saliba. “We need to balance the needs of dog owners and park users in the open space network.”

The strategy considered community feedback and used best practice strategies from other Councils, documentation and guidelines from state government bodies and academic papers on how to best plan for the provision of dog-friendly spaces.

“The information Council received helped to identify common best practice themes in relation to design, location and embellishments of dog friendly spaces,” added Cr Saliba.

“Dog-friendly spaces are a topic that affects the broad community, not just those who own dogs. Dog-friendly spaces can provide opportunities for socialisation between dog owners and a place to exercise for both owners and their dogs.”

The Draft Dog Friendly Spaces Strategy was developed with information provided from an online survey conducted by Council over a three-week period between April and May 2018.

The survey results provided 246 responses from the community regarding their opinions of dog friendly spaces in the region. 

The strategy will be reviewed 12 months after it has been implemented. 

View the Draft Dog Friendly Areas Strategy. 

Media queries: Kelli Wells 0448 361 008.