Council rewrites controversial dog rules

About 60 dogs and their owners gathered at Opua last month to protest a proposed new bylaw which would have made it the only beach in the Bay where dogs were allowed off lead. PHOTO / RUTH LAWTON

Far North dog advocates are due to meet council staff today to discuss a new version of a controversial dog bylaw.

An earlier version of the Far North District Council bylaw sparked howls of protest - especially in Russell - when dog owners discovered it proposed banning all off-leash exercise on Russell beaches and mooted a one or two dog per household limit along much of the east coast.

A group called Bay of Islands WatchDogs was set up to fight the new bylaw, rallies were held, and a community board meeting drew a record 120 members of the public.

Dog lovers were incensed because the initial version of the new bylaw, which went out for consultation late last year, proposed relaxing many of the district's dog rules, particularly around beach access outside the busy summer months. The second version, however, proposed reducing beach access.

The council said this was due to concerns raised by iwi and the Department of Conservation around pollution of shellfish beds and threats to shorebirds.

At the August 14 community board meeting, council chief executive Shaun Clarke ruled out rewriting the bylaw and holding a second round of consultation, but that appears to be what the council has now agreed to do.

The council has also changed some staff roles, with compliance manager Darren Edwards now fronting the issue instead of policy writer Neil Miller.

Three representatives of the WatchDogs group have been invited to join Mr Edwards, DoC and iwi to discuss the rewritten bylaw.

Mayor John Carter said the council accepted it didn't get the bylaw right, so had made "significant alterations" which it would discuss with a small group of interested parties today and possibly once or twice more until the key points had been covered.

The re-drafted bylaw would then go out via the dog owner database, Facebook and other means, and be refined until it was acceptable to the council and community.
People would have until the end of October to share their views.

WatchDogs member Leonie Exel said the group was looking forward to seeing the new draft bylaw.

"And we're very much looking forward to getting it out to our members so they can make submissions and hopefully be listened to."

Much of the opposition to dogs on beaches is based on the threat to birds such as the little blue penguin and endangered NZ dotterel.

Brad Windust, of conservation group Bay Bush Action, told the community board meeting he would be satisfied with a dog ban on the three Bay of Islands beaches most important to wildlife, which were Waitangi, Te Haumi and Russell's Long Beach.