Petition

ePetition details

Prevention of wildlife injuries and deaths due to loose dogs on Stonebow Washlands and Dishley Pool nature reserves, Loughborough.

We the undersigned petition the council to abandon its ineffective dog "control" scheme (referred to as 'Dogs on leads by direction’) on the nature reserves of Stonebow Washlands and Dishley Pool, Loughborough and replace it with a dog control scheme requiring that all dogs be kept on a short, fixed lead at all times whilst on those nature reserves.

Since its inception in January 2020, a Charnwood Borough Council (CBC) dog control scheme on Stonebow Washlands and Dishley Pool nature reserves, Loughborough, referred to as ‘Dogs on leads by direction’, has failed to prevent a loose dog attack upon a Dishley Mute Swan cygnet (baby/young swan) in February, a loose dog attack upon a human being visiting Dishley in February, the death of a Dishley Mute Swan cob (adult male) in April due to an attack by a loose dog, a loose dog attack upon an innocent dog at Dishley in April, a five-strong loose dogs attack upon a stonebow Mute Swan cob in June, a loose dog attack upon a group of seven Dishley Mute Swans in September and a loose dog attack upon yet another group of eight Dishley Mute Swans in October. Based upon this observer’s eight years of daily visits, often for hours a day, it is considered certain that far less easily detected attacks upon Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Tufted Duck and Great Crested Grebe, to mention but a few of the smaller wild residents, must also have occurred.

This petition calls for the abandonment of ‘Dogs on leads by direction’, which has clearly been proven by the above incidents to be an abject failure, and its replacement with a dog control scheme requiring that all dogs be kept on a short, fixed lead at all times whilst on the nature reserves of Stonebow Washlands and Dishley Pool, Loughborough.

This proposal may also be of considerable value at other CBC nature reserves or open spaces where ‘Dogs on leads by direction’ is currently applied to little or no effect, one likely example of such being Hermitage Lake, Whitwick, where a Mute Swan cob was killed in June by a loose dog.

Action is urgently required to put a stop to this public danger.

The Council’s petitions scheme set out in the Constitution requires a minimum of 20 signatures for it to be classed as an “Ordinary” petition and for the Council to respond.

As this petition only received 11 responses this petition has closed and on instruction from the lead petitioner has not been reactivated.


Charnwood Borough Council will investigate incidents and take action if necessary, but this is subject to the report being substantiated

Started by: David Heskin

On reaching 100 signatures the head of the relevant department will be made aware of the matter.

This ePetition ran from 19/10/2020 to 02/02/2021 and has now finished.

11 people signed this ePetition.