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Grantham councillor attacked by dogs while out walking




A councillor has been attacked by dogs while out for a walk.

Coun Phil Gadd (Grantham Independent), who sits on the Belmont ward, said his experience was part of a rise in dog attacks across South Kesteven.

Phil Gadd
Phil Gadd

Sharing his experience at a Cabinet meeting at South Kesteven District Council on July 8 he said: “Saturday morning I go out on my normal walking route and goes up Fifth Avenue (Grantham) onto the Woodland Trust and there are a bunch of people doing wild camping there.

“Who was attacked by three dogs? Me. One round my ankles. The other two were just behind the barriers in the education area. One was trying to get over the top.

“I had to freeze to the spot. It’s still happening and it was reported to the police. I went there on Saturday morning and it’s happening a lot in my ward in Haerby ward.”

Councillors had put out a consultation asking people to share their views on whether there was a need for Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO) and a limit to the number of dogs on leads.

A PSPOs are powers which local authorities have to work with the police in response to specific instances involving dogs to tackle any poor behaviour.

The council’s consultation found that 52% of people who took part in the survey said that the number of dogs allowed on leads should be limited.

A total of 22% of people also said they had witnessed specific instances of anti-social behaviour involving dogs.

Deputy leader of South Kesteven District Council, Paul Stokes (Grantham Independent), said he had recently witnessed the 'chaos' of an owner losing control of their dogs.

He said: “Walking down the High Street in Westgate the other day, there was a couple with three dogs - big dogs.

"They had several bags in their hands. They tried to change the dogs from one to the other.

“The dogs got loose. It was chaos. Anything could have happened. It seemed to me that the three were far too many.

“I do feel to a large extent we should keep this open. I would prefer to note the consultation but make sure we don’t just kick it into the long grass and we keep it there as something to review in the future.”

Head of service (public protection) at the district council, Ayeisha Kirkham, said that the council has seen an increase in dog attacks since the pandemic.

She added: “In terms of dog attacks and the increase in dog attacks, there’s complex information around that in terms of dog ownership, different types of breeds. There's been an increase in dog ownership since Covid.

“In terms of dog control, if people are not controlling their dogs and residents know about that, they can report that and we can investigate and take enforcement action under the community protection powers.”

Leader of South Kesteven District Council, Ashley Baxter (Independent), acknowledged that it was a complex issue which needed to be looked at.

He said: “Clearly, it is something that draws attention and it was worth doing the consultation because we’ve had a lot of responses. No one is saying there isn’t an issue about it.

“I think it’s true to say not all the problems related to dogs are related to having too many dogs on leads.

"There are other issues with dogs not on leads, not under control. One person can have one dog and it be on or off a lead and it can be out of control and cause a nuisance.”

Ms Kirkham went on to say that the council is working to provide a ‘targeted’ response to specific instances of dog attacks or anti-social behaviour.

She said the district council would monitor the situation over the next year and report back to the committee.

She added: “We will do targeted responses to complaints that we receive so there’s a regular person that walks a dog causing a nuisance or problems.

"If there’s a regular person who walks their dogs and is causing a nuisance or problems, we will feed that back to the team.

"We have the community protection notice. There’s already provisions within the legislation to take action and we will report anything we have in a year’s time.”

Coun Richard Cleaver said he would look into the issue raised by councillor Gadd.

He added: “I would be quite happy to investigate whether we could do some joint publicity campaigns with Lincolnshire Police along the lines of walking your dogs responsibly would be an appropriate thing to do.”

Councillors agreed that they would monitor the situation for a year and report back in a year’s time.



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