Controversial bylaw goes to vote today after two-year dogfight

The dog bylaw controversy sparked protests like this one on Opua Beach in August last year by about 60 dog owners and their pets. Photo / Ruth Lawton

A two-year dogfight could be over today if Far North District councillors pass a new dog bylaw with greatly watered-down restrictions on beach access for pooches.

A review of the 2006 bylaw started in 2016 but sparked howls of protest from dog owners, who formed a lobby group called Bay of Islands WatchDogs to fight it. The bylaw has since been binned, rewritten, and re-consulted on a number of times.

The latest version has been welcomed by WatchDogs spokeswoman Leonie Exel, who said the group was grateful the mayor and councillors had listened to community concerns.

''We feel they've been pretty fair, and they've recognised it's not people who walk their dogs on a lead that are the problem — it's wandering dogs and we all have an interest in fixing that.''

A list of 10 beaches with wildlife-related restrictions, which was added without consultation at the last minute, had been removed and would be consulted on separately next year, she said.

The new bylaw has, however, been slammed by some conservationists. Russell's Eion Harwood described it as ''a complete disaster for wildlife''.

''After all the time and process, and tens of thousands of hours of people's time and effort, this is what they came up with? The council should be ashamed for not providing any safeguards for our kiwi and shore nesting birds.''

Of particular concern was that the ''default setting'' for all beaches was off-leash, with dog bans on just four beaches.

The Dog Management Bylaw and Policy due to be voted on today was hammered out on November 27 after a record 1215 public submissions.

The initial proposal was far more restrictive than the existing 2006 bylaw — Bay of Islands dog owners were particularly upset it gave them only one off-leash beach, at Opua — but the latest version is more permissive.

All beaches and council reserves not specifically named in the new bylaw, as well as the Paihia-Opua walkway, are defined as off-leash areas.

The current bylaw requires dogs to be on-leash on specified ''popular'' beaches between 9am and 6pm from December 1 to February 28. The previous version of the new bylaw called for 10am-5pm restrictions from December 15 to February 28, while in the final version the on-leash period has been reduced to December 15 to January 31.

Dogs are banned year round at a few ''special character'' beaches with high conservation or cultural values, including Te Haumi (Paihia), Tii Beach from the roundabout north, and all Waitangi beaches.

Some contentious beaches have been split in two, such as Taupo Bay, where the southern end is subject to year-round prohibition while the standard rules for popular beaches apply to the northern part.

As in the current bylaw, dogs are banned from all playgrounds and public pools. Council-owned sports grounds are off-leash except when in use for sports events. Dogs are permitted on-leash on publicly owned sections of the Twin Coast Cycle Trail and prohibited on privately-owned sections.