The design and management of parks was much simpler thirty years ago. There was generally less sensitivity to the environment and other contextual issues. Parks were typically one-dimensional focusing around a single activity with little consideration of community issues or specific needs. The public concern for the environment which surfaced in the seventies and eighties and the intense competition for resources served as a wake-up call for Councils to start addressing the needs of different groups in more systematic ways.
Dogs' owners have not been considered separately by open space planners - their needs have been assumed to be part of the overall need for passive open space. This is probably as it should be and worked well in the past. The difficulty has emerged with the changing management environment where park managers have been forced to deal with more intense user conflicts. For dogs, this has meant greater restrictions on access. The emerging gap between planning and management means that we now need to address dog owners' needs at the planning level.
Local authorities have responded in an infinite variety of ways depending on local circumstances and with varying levels of success. Part of the problem has been a lack of correct information about both the conflicts and the reasons why dogs need continued access to public parks. We now turn to both of these.