Brian Rudman: Dog recommendations may come back to bite Citrats in ballot box

Who said the ruling Citizens and Ratepayers team on the Auckland City Council do not have a sense of humour?

For more than a year now, the minority City Vision-Labour group has been complaining bitterly about its exclusion from the levers of power.

They had their noses rubbed in it a couple of weeks back when a clerical error had them all invited to a leaders' group meeting. Two of them fell for it and turned up, only to be turned away at the door.

No doubt the Citrats had a snigger, too, when they finally invited their leftie colleagues in from the cold following the uproar over dog controls. Apparently none of the anointed wanted to dirty their hands with dog control. So they invited former deputy mayor and City Vision leader Bruce Hucker to chair a works committee working party "to determine the assessment and consultation criteria for dog exercise areas".

On his committee were allies, councillors Glenda Fryer, Victoria Carter and Western Bays community board chair Catherine Hawley.

If it was meant to be a put-down, it could well backfire. Because the committee has returned with recommendations - adopted last week by the works committee - which could come back to bite the ruling clique in their backsides. Or the ballot box.

One of the recommendations most likely to upset dog owners is the imposition of time limitations for exercising in parks. This should not take place from dusk and into the evening, as is presently the case. Instead, off-leash dog exercise time should be in the early mornings from 5am to 8am, they suggest.

The working party noted that conflicts between dogs and families should be minimised at this time because "This is not a time when family picnics take place". It's not a time when I'm likely to be around, either, so I reckon it's a great idea.

The committee also looked at the issue of fencing off-leash areas without coming to any strong conclusions. The big problem is the high cost of such fencing, and an indication by Deputy Mayor David Hay at the recent works committee meeting that there was no money in general coffers for such work.

Councillor Fryer says she's going to challenge this at the next budget round and move that money be put aside for such work. It's surely a common sense follow-on from the new dog control legislation being signalled by the Government.

After all, if the Government is going to force dog owners to fence a part of their property to ensure dog-free access for strangers, then what about public parks? It makes no sense to insist on such separation on private property, but not bother when it comes to parkland.

The Government acknowledges this in its direction, noted by the working party, that dogs should be leashed in areas used by families and children. One question it throws up is whether a solution would be to fence in playgrounds.

To me, locking children in a caged area to protect them from dogs racing around the rest of the park is looking at the problem from the wrong end of the telescope.

Community boards are to review their local dogs-in-park policies along the guidelines proposed. All in all, it's a useful step towards a humans-first park policy and a good step back from the craziness that erupted last month in the Eden Albert ward.

You might recall how just a month after the savage mauling of a little girl in a city park, the insensitive majority on the Eden Albert community board voted without public consultation, but following much lobbying from dog owners, to open up five public parks - or parts of them - as unleashed dog exercise areas between either 5pm or 6pm and 9am the next day.

After an angry complaint to council chief executive Bryan Taylor by councillor Fryer about errors of process, and subsequent comment in this column, the decision was quietly shelved.

Not one of the parks was opened up. It was a commendable backdown, even if the decision should never have been made in the first place.

Now it's over to the community boards to review their dogs-in-parks policies using the new guidelines.

If you have concerns, now is the time to have your say.