This letter started yesterday when I met Brunswick Heads’ own park vigilante. I had the very strong feeling that she viewed the park as less a public space than her own backyard. The park vigilante was ‘politely’ encouraging dog owners to go elsewhere.
I moved to this area from Sydney’s inner west where dog walking is a very communal thing. Dog owners in my Sydney local park mill about together and chat while the dogs play around their feet. People make friends – it’s about being part of a community. Soccer teams train in the same park most weeknights. On Tuesday evening – the busiest time – four under ten soccer teams train while the dog owners watch. Between soccer players, their parents and siblings, coaches, managers and dog walkers more than 60 people share the park. In contrast Brunswick Heads parks are empty of people and community except during the monthly Saturday markets.
Council’s policy banning dogs off-leash and aggressive enforcement is not only anti-community and bad urban management; it’s also bad for the environment and makes life more difficult for people with disabilities.
Brunswick Heads is one of those places where you can walk to everything you need unless you own a dog. Now it seems I am expected to get in the car and drive to Mullum or the beach to ‘walk’ the dog. There are more than 10,000 registered dogs in Byron Shire. If only half of those dog owners drive their dog to an off-leash area every day that’s a lot of car trips and consequential greenhouse gas emissions and that’s not exactly good for the environment. So much for Council’s green credentials!
The Bruns beach dog off-leash area is accessed by a winding soft-sand path. I have arthritis and every step on that path is painful. I can’t imagine how difficult that path might be for the elderly and people with mobility issues more serious than mine. The whole idea of people with disabilities (e.g. mental disability or blind) getting in the car to drive to another town to walk the dog or trying to negotiate that path is at best unrealistic and at worst heartless. Here in Bruns a person with dementia was fined and I heard another girl just picked up her little dog and ran when approached by the ranger.
The fine for walking a dog off-leash is $330. And Council is putting a lot of effort (and my rates) into aggressive enforcement of this bad policy – erecting new signs everywhere and sending out the rangers to fine people.
This policy affects my everyday life and I am more than a little annoyed. Come the Council elections in September this will be a voting issue for me. I reckon the other owners of the 10,000 dogs in Byron Shire might form a reasonable voting bloc. How about it dog owners? How about we bother councillors to spend money on improving our life and doing something positive like fixing potholes you could drown in, fixing gutters that flood at the first sign of rain, and more streetlights to combat crime (six cars were stolen from my street last week). Any of those things would be better than focusing on fining dog owners.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
