City rolls over on dog ban

GEELONG council has overturned an unpopular dog ban in a Barwon Heads park, with the mayor signalling the City of Greater Geelong was also taking feedback on the “madness” of banning dogs from some Bellarine beaches.

Councillors voted on Tuesday night in favour of removing a ban on off-leash dogs at the popular Pony Paddocks section of the Barwon Heads

Village Park, a dog-walking hotspot in the township.

The CoGG moved to overturn the ban after residents hit out late last year when signs were erected at the park requiring dogs be kept on-leash in the Pony Paddocks section,

That rule had enforced a municipality-wide policy change endorsed in 2018, removing dogs from equestrian areas.

Dogs will now only be required to be on-leash in the paddocks when the area is in use by the equestrian club.

Community backlash included a petition containing 485 signatures to allow dogs off-leash within the largely -unused equestrian grounds.

A community survey on the issue was held by the CoGG in January, with all but about 50 of 304 responses supporting a backflip on the ban.

“The majority of respondents (82.3 per cent) were supportive of a change to the current policy that would provide for increased off-leash spaces,” council documents noted. “Most of the respondents were very supportive of council considering expanding off-leash areas, citing health, wellbeing and community connectedness as the key benefits.”

Mayor and Bellarine councillor Stephanie Asher said the council decision was a “terrific example of the CoGG team doing the right thing”.

“It is actually a really great outcome for the community, who’ve been left with very few places to walk dogs in Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove,” Cr Asher said.

“As a resident of that area myself, I have feedback given to me daily about the madness of a decision to ban dogs from beaches during the day for five months of the year. We are looking into that and taking feedback there, too.”

The Pony Paddocks ban raised the ire of residents shortly after the council voted in favour of an unpopular trial of a year-long blanket ban of dogs from Ocean Grove main beach, which came through a series of proposed dog access changes to Barwon Coast Committee of Managementmanaged beaches from Connewarre to Collendina.

The trial was supported despite a majority of about 600 community responses disagreeing with the move.