Pups let off leashes
Council changes boundaries at dog parks
OFF LEASH: Bella Abernathy walks her dachshund Mila in the off-leash area of Garnet Lehmann Park, which has changed boundaries. BELLA Abernathy loves to take Mila for a roam at Garnet Lehmann Park, and now she’ll have even more room to roam.
Where your pooch can move around freely in off-leash areas in East Creek, Wilsonton Heights and Highfields has drastically changed.
The Toowoomba Regional Council voted on Wednesday to broaden the boundaries of the off-leash areas at Ballin Park, Garnet Lehmann Park, Wilsonton Heights Park and Michael Park in Highfields.
The change comes three years after the council reduced the size of the two parks at East Creek, which was met with anger from several residents.
Senior landscape architect Ingrid Steinhardt said the boundaries were brought back after initial consultation with the public found that more people were using only one park in the East Creek area.
“The community weren’t happy with the reduced area so we did some initial consultation to try and resolve those issues,” she said.
“With Ballin Park, the main issue was that it was very close to Ballin Dr here.
“Most people weren’t comfortable walking their dogs off the leash and people weren’t using Ballin Park with that reduced dog off-leash area and were moving to Garnet Lehmann Park, which was becoming overused for dog off-leash.”
Deputy mayor Carol Taylor supported the changes, saying that dog owners were ultimately responsible for making sure parks remained safe for everyone.
“I think this is a really good outcome, because now everyone has some space,” she said.
“There’s been a big report that’s been released about the benefit of dog ownership, and what we’re doing here is making this far more delineated.
“It comes back to responsible dog ownership.”