The dog restrictions aren’t about fouling or safety; they’re about clearing dog walkers - the very people who stand in the way of development - the ‘obstacles’ Angela Rayner says must be removed with a sledgehammer.:
(“I’m absolutely determined to break that system, and I’m handing mayors the sledgehammer. Mayors are at the centre of our plan to build 1.5 million homes by giving them the power they need. Mayors are an army to take on the blockers. We are backing them to work across huge regional geographies to get the job done”)
For years we’ve been told the same fairy tale: “It’s just about dog fouling. Be reasonable.”Last week Folkestone & Hythe District Council finally answered my Freedom of Information request and official complaint about their new district-wide dog control PSPO.Their reply proves the fairy tale is a lie.
They admitted:
* ZERO dog-attack or injury cases were used to justify the order (all those scary “dangerous dogs” headlines were hot air).
* The entire legal basis rests on 248 “dog-RELATED complaints” (incl. dog are racists like in Wales?)
over three years
* They refuse to release the actual logs because it would cost more than £450 to collate (i.e. they don’t want you to see that one serial complainer with 150 emails counts as 150 “cases”).
But the mask slipped further.
The Real Agenda
* Taxpayers already pay millions for street cleaning — yet dog owners are punished for a problem the council is paid to solve.
* Responsible dog walkers are the unpaid park wardens who pick up the broken glass, needles and vodka bottles left by actual anti-social humans.
* “Behaviour change” social engineering — the cabinet papers drip with nudge-unit language about “cultural change” and “responsible ownership”.
* Land grabs in plain sight — many of the new “dogs on leads by default” zones sit on or next to Otterpool Park garden town and “biodiversity net gain” sites. Fewer dog walkers = fewer objections when the diggers move in.
And yes — it’s already happened elsewhere. In Wales, council officers openly cited “community cohesion” and the fear that off-lead dogs make some minority groups feel unsafe (the infamous “racist dogs” scandal, 2022–23). The minutes are still online if you can stomach them.
While They Criminalise Your Spaniel… Here’s What Actually Kills Britons
How much more likely you are to die from everyday accidents than from a fatal dog attack (UK):
Choking on food (including sandwiches):280 deaths per year — 47× more likely than a fatal dog attack
Falling out of bed:150 deaths per year — 25× more likely
Drowning in the bath:25 deaths per year — 4× more likely
Tripping over your own trousers or jeans:10–12 deaths per year — 2× more likely
Fatal dog attacks:6 deaths per year …..
..Fatal dog attack figures never separate unprovoked attacks from cases involving abused or provoked dogs, or dogs defending themselves or their owners
You are FORTY SEVEN TIMES MORE LIKELY to choke to death on a ham sandwich than to be killed by a dog.
You are twenty-five times more likely to die falling out of bed.
Yet no councillor is proposing a Public Spaces Protection Order for beds, sandwiches, or trousers.
What the Council Refused to Answer
* Where is the animal-welfare impact assessment? (None exists.)
* Where is the proportionality assessment required by human rights law? (Also none.)
* Why were no dog-owner groups formally consulted?
* Why is broken glass from drunks never a PSPO offence, but letting your spaniel sniff a buttercup is now a £100 fine?
A Reality Everyone Knows but the Council Pretends Not To
The irony is that responsible dog owners have never denied the problem. Of course there is the occasional 1% who fail to pick up — and it’s unpleasant, nobody wants to step in dog mess. But let’s be honest: people also leave dirty nappies in piles on the beaches every summer, broken glass on park paths (one shard went straight through my thick winter boots last year), human waste behind bushes, nitrous oxide canisters scattered across play areas, and even used syringes in the sand.
And everyone living here knows the bigger truth: when residents call the police about actual anti-social behaviour in the parks — groups of drunk men shouting abuse, aggressive drug users, teenagers vandalising trees and smashing bottles — the police rarely come. You’re told to “report it online” or fill in an email form that disappears into the void. The people who genuinely make public spaces unsafe are left to it.
Yet none of this triggers district-wide Public Spaces Protection Orders. None of it results in £100 fines for families trying to enjoy a walk.Only dogs do — and always, curiously, in the same locations where new housing, “green infrastructure”, or development allocations are being quietly pushed forward.
When the authorities ignore crime but crack down on spaniels, it isn’t public safety — it’s policy theatre.
The 248 “Cases” Myth
Divide 248 by 1,095 days (2023–2025) = 0.226 complaints per day.Across 250+ parks, beaches and open spaces.That’s not a crisis. That could easily be one grumpy person — even a councillor — with too much time and a hunger for self-importance
The Real Crisis
The real crisis is a council that would rather criminalise ordinary families than admit it has failed to manage parks properly. The real crisis is the creeping British disease of banning everything that isn’t nailed down because it’s easier than targeting actual criminals.
They ended their reply with the usual threat: comply or face the Information Commissioner.I will. And when the ICO forces the data out, every dog owner in Folkestone & Hythe will see the truth: this PSPO was never about poo.
It was about control, cheap land management, and virtue-signalling at your expense.
What You Can Do
* Study the development pipeline.Pull up your council’s planning proposals, Garden Town maps, BNG sites, and “green infrastructure” plans — then compare them with the new dog-control zones.The pattern speaks for itself.
* Demand cost transparency.Ask exactly how much they’ve spent on:
* PSPO enforcement
* “Behaviour change” programmes
* Outside consultants
* Signage, mapping and legal drafting
* Patrols, staff hours, and communicationsYou pay for all of it.
* Request documentation on behavioural manipulation projects (yes, councils use them):
* “Nudge theory”
* “Behaviour change frameworks”
* “Community safety narratives”
* “Cultural compliance programmes”
* Walk the land.Dog walkers are the people who consistently spot early development prep: fencing, ground testing, quiet surveying.This PSPO removes you.
* Share the truth.Once residents understand why the bans exist, the council’s narrative collapses.Because if we roll over for this, the next PSPO will be for barbecues, ball games, or just breathing too loudly in a public space.
No more excuses.No more leads.
Madeleine HuntHeritage Party | Fighting for common sense
References & Further Reading
* FHDC Dog Control PSPO 2025 (official document)
* Cabinet Report 16 July 2025 – search “dog control” on folkestone-hythe.moderngov.co.uk
* Welsh “community cohesion” dog zones controversy (BBC Wales, 2022)
* Otterpool Park garden town masterplan
* DEFRA Code of Practice for the Welfare of Dogs
* ONS, HSE, RoSPA, TORRO fatality data (2020–2025)
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