Date

Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Release

Shellharbour City Council has adopted its first ever Shellharbour Dog Friendly Space Strategy.

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.

Council officers created the strategy using community feedback, 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.

Shellharbour Mayor Marianne Saliba said she was happy to see the strategy adopted.

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

“Dog-friendly spaces affect everyone in the community, not just dog owners. Dog-friendly spaces provide opportunities for socialisation between dog owners and a place to exercise for both owners and their dogs.

“It’s fantastic the Council has been strategic in how it is going to deal with these shared spaces.”

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 strategy will be reviewed in 12 months. It can be viewed at https://cdn.shellharbour.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/Living_here_docu...

Media queries: Kelli Wells 0448 361 008.

Last updated : Thu 3 Oct 2019