Dog owners face £100 fines for walking their pets in four parks
Four parks have been added to the list of places where dog walkers are banned in a Welsh county
The council said locals have reacted positively to the scheme
(Image: PA )
A council has moved to add more parks to its banned list for dogwalkers. Torfaen County Borough Council has banned dogs from some of its parks since 2018 and the local authority regularly reviews the list to see if some could be added to it.
The council's Labour cabinet was recommended to add four newly developed children's play areas to the order this week which it has now agreed to.
The four parks where dogwalkers are now banned are the Southville Park children's play area in Llantarnam, Thornhill multi-games area in Upper Cwmbran, Blenheim Road children's play area in Fairwater, and the Cwmavon village children's play area in Abersychan.
Anyone ignoring the orders could be hit with a £100 on the spot fine which can be issued by Torfaen council's civil enforcement officers, and a failure to pay could lead to a prosecution which could result in a fine of up to £1,000 if convicted. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
The public spaces protection orders, or PSPOs, must be reviewed every three years.
Torfaen Borough Council's environmental protection manager, John Clements, assured the cabinet that enforcing the new orders is not expected to create extra work.
Article continues below
He said: "The expectation is it will be self-regulating. Most people are aware it is not appropriate to allow dogs to foul in children's play areas."
Council leader Anthony Hunt shared that the public has reacted positively to news articles about the proposal to expand the existing orders.
Council leader Anthony Hunt said many have been positive about the council's decisions on the matter
(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service )
The Panteg councillor said: "I've seen the coverage in advance and it's been largely positive and welcomed.
"We thank responsible dog owners who pick up responsibly and the majority do recognise the dangers dog poo can cause to young people especially and it's not just play areas but sports grounds."
He said locals have backed the council's efforts to combat dog fouling, highlighting "yellow stencils" on pavements "across the borough pointing out where we have a problem".
Article continues below
Cllr Hunt also explained the council has secured a portion of a £5 million Welsh Government fund designated for playground refurbishments, stating: "We'll use that to try and update as many as possible."
The cabinet has additionally approved bringing forward another report to examine additional enforcement options.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
North Wales Live
an hour ago
- North Wales Live
'Bonkers' plan by fours sisters to build four houses next to each other
A fresh proposal for four affordable homes on the periphery of a Welsh town, all designed to house members of one family, looks set to face rejection next week. This follows a previous application, branded as "bonkers", which was declined last year. The Jukes sisters - Celyn, Sara, Carys and Mandy - have lodged a planning application with Ceredigion Council seeking approval to construct four discounted bungalows at Drws Y Coed, Cae Morgan Road, on the outskirts of Cardigan. The scheme, which has been recommended for refusal at the August 13 development management committee meeting, incorporates a fourth dwelling for their sister, Mandy Jones. Three of the sisters presently live at Drws Y Coed alongside their parents. Last August, a comparable scheme put forward by the same applicants was rejected by county planners. The proposal, which involved constructing four £400,000 three and four-bedroom detached properties at the location, faced criticism for describing them as 'affordable', a term branded "bonkers". The previous application was recommended for refusal due to several reasons including its location in open countryside, which contravenes planning policy, reports WalesOnline. The application also "fails to demonstrate that the proposed occupiers of the dwellings are in real affordable housing need, with [the applicants'] search focusing on properties up to a value of £350k," and "there is no real need for the proposed occupiers to live at the application site, and is rather a desire to live close to the family". Russell Hughes-Pickering, the head of planning for Ceredigion, has voiced serious concerns about the size and scale of the proposed development. He described the houses, which are expected to be in the region of £400,000, as "blatantly not affordable". "Anyone looking at the application and thinking they are affordable houses is bonkers, these are not affordable houses: the size of the properties, the size of the plots, the value of the houses; they are just not affordable." A supporting statement from Harries Planning Design Management, the agent for the latest scheme, says: "Due to their personal and family ties to Caermorgan Road, it is such that they seek to build homes on the land to the rear of Drws Y Coed. "This will provide independent living accommodation where they can settle and continue to live, work and raise a family within their local community." The statement also mentions that the proposed dwellings, which have been reduced in size and design after the previous refusal, are "honest in their intentions, to provide long-term family homes which will be of an appropriate scale to serve their needs, whilst respecting the wider landscape context and neighbouring amenity levels". The most recent proposal was once more advised for rejection at the July meeting, because the location sits within open countryside beyond any established settlement where new housing development is generally opposed, the site falls well short of required housing density standards outlined in policy, and it would cause substantial harm to the surrounding landscape. The application was postponed at that meeting awaiting a Site Inspection Panel visit, but faces rejection once again, with the panel voicing "significant concern with regards to the layout of the proposed development and the siting of the dwellinghouses," according to a report for councillors. The document also reveals the panel deemed the suggested layout and positioning unacceptable, whilst a planned pedestrian pathway connection "would only benefit the occupiers of the proposed dwellinghouses".
South Wales Guardian
4 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
VE Day overshadows VJ Day, veterans' descendants say
Passers-by paused to watch recordings of loved ones' reading excerpts from the notes at the free installation to commemorate VJ Day. One message, heard at the launch in central London on Tuesday, said: 'I'll think of you wherever you are, if it be near or far. I'll think of you. We'll meet again someday, when dreams come true.' Another line, from a doctor in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, read: 'Our dreams have finally come true. The nightmare is over.' VJ Day on August 15 marks the anniversary of Japan's surrender to the Allies following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, effectively ending the Second World War. Veronica Silander's father was an RAF airman and prisoner of war in Batavia, now Jakarta in Indonesia, and wrote his letter around two months after he was captured. It was the first message Ms Silander's mother had received from Maurice Read since he was taken and it included the line: 'So once again, do not worry please. I am OK and intend to remain so.' As the letters played on the large screens behind, Ms Silander told the PA news agency: 'The youngsters need to know about (VJ Day), I think it's often in the shadow of VE Day. 'I think probably 80 years, you know, even people like myself are not going to be around that had direct contact with somebody, so I think we should mark it.' She added: 'I think my mother must have been very distressed to know that he was still a prisoner when all the celebration was going on.' Her father rarely spoke about the war but would say 'when you woke up in the morning, you didn't know who was going to be dead beside you'. Ms Silander knows little more than that he trained in Auckland, New Zealand, and was captured two weeks after they were taken to Singapore by sea. Families received leaflets telling them 'do not ask the veterans about the war', she said. 'I think they just wanted them to come home and forget about it,' she added. John Sanderson served with the Royal Navy in the Far East between 1944 and 1946, and his letter to his fiance included the line 'we'll meet again someday, when dreams come true'. His son, Brian Sanderson, told PA: 'My father always said VJ Day was forgotten.' He would tell his wife that while people were dancing on VE Day 'I had kamikaze pilots coming down on me still'. VJ Day was hardly marked until recently, Mr Sanderson said, adding that his parents did not often speak about the war. 'That's the sad thing, is that we never asked them, they never spoke about it, and the stories have gone – I have no-one left from the Second World War,' he said. The installation runs until Saturday at Outernet, near Tottenham Court Road station, and was organised in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Glasgow Times
4 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
£13m scheme boosts rare wildlife but experts warn ‘time running out' for nature
The Species Recovery Programme's capital grants scheme, which ran from August 2023 to March 2025, saw Government nature agency Natural England invest in targeted conservation efforts to help rare wildlife such as water voles, oystercatchers and lady's slipper orchids. Natural England said the scheme supported the recovery of more than 150 species, many of which were on the brink of national extinction, through creating habitat, captive breeding and translocating wildlife to help it expand into new areas, and research. Water voles have been helped by the £13 million funding (Ian West/PA) The scheme has scored successes including the first wild-hatched red-billed chough chick fledging in Kent for more than 200 years, the reintroduction of black grouse to the North Yorkshire Moors and the return of the large marsh grasshopper to the Norfolk Broads after 85 years, Natural England said. Tunnels have been installed under a road in Berkshire to allow adders to cross, disused buildings have been made ideal for bat breeding in Sussex and the first example of lady's slipper orchids naturally propagating in the wild has been recorded in Yorkshire. The scheme invested in 63 different projects from the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall to Cumbria and Northumberland, working with 78 organisations to create or enhance 2,400 hectares (5,900 acres) of wildlife-rich habitat. That includes 143 'leaky dams' to support Atlantic salmon, white-clawed crayfish and freshwater pearl mussels, at the same time as reducing flood risk and improving water quality. And more than 15,000 individual animals and plants were translocated to expand species' territories, as well as captive breeding more than 12,000 individuals including invertebrates, mammals and birds. Natural England chairman Tony Juniper said the success of the programme showed nature could be restored, but warned there was a need for more projects, more volunteers and more money, particularly from the private sector. And there needed to be action to improve the environment, such as reducing pollution. He will tell an event on Wednesday to mark the success of the grant scheme held at Brandon Marsh, Warwickshire, where rare bitterns are staging a comeback: 'A rising number of nature recovery projects, both large and small, are making a huge difference up and down the country. 'The success of this programme is an example of how much we can do when we take a joined up, collaborative approach to restoring the natural world. 'We know we can turn round species decline and improve ecosystems with the right targeted actions, the drive and the funding. 18mm Rhinolophus bats have been helped by the programme (Daniel Hargreaves/Vincent Wildlife Trust/PA) 'But time is running out fast – turning round nature's decline needs to be a collective endeavour, so this is not just the preserve of dedicated specialists. 'Nature recovery work needs more projects, more volunteers and more money to flow from all sources, particularly the private sector. 'It will also need to go hand in hand with improved environmental quality, including through reduced pollution.' The Government is set to publish a revised environmental improvement plan in the autumn to deliver legally binding green targets, after the Office for Environmental Protection watchdog said the previous government was largely off-track to meet the goals. Mr Juniper said the publication would be a 'key moment', warning there needed to be increased ambition on species recovery, in particular what could be done on some of the wildlife England has lost. 'In the coming years, habitat management and creation alongside species reintroductions could be a real game changer for the health of ecosystems and help us achieve the country's legally binding targets,' he said. A new guide for how to support hundreds of species including pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies is being published (Devon Wildlife Trust/PA) Natural England is also publishing a threatened species recovery actions guide detailing how to support more than 1,000 of England's most threatened species, from the small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly, corncrake and natterjack toad to tiny lichens. Richard Benwell, chief executive of the Wildlife and Countryside Link coalition of conservation groups, said: 'Today's results prove species conservation works – but it's still run on a shoestring, with short-term pots of money far from enough to halt nature's decline. 'Government must boost public funding and mandate private investment to multiply this impact tenfold. 'The new environmental improvement plan should also lock in a long-term pipeline of funding for species and the habitats they rely on, combining public and private finance to turn one-off wins into lasting recovery.'
