Pyrmont goes to the dogs
A vehement debate over the rights of dog owners at the Water Police Park site in Pyrmont came to a head at the City of Sydney Council meeting on Monday, with the park narrowly being voted as an off-leash site.
An amendment to make the Water Police site on-leash, while leave the adjoining Pyrmont Point Park off-leash, was defeated by Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s casting vote, while the site’s broader Plan of Management motion passed 6-4.
During the debate, Greens Councillor Chris Harris said a number of Pyrmont residents were unhappy with the proposed motion. “If we pass this tonight, there will be no park, for all intents and purposes, at Pyrmont Point that requires dogs to be on-leash,” he said. “This does not reflect our policy – half the population there don’t own dogs. A percentage of the population down there are probably terrified of dogs, and they won’t actually go to the park.”
Cr Harris said that while Pyrmont Point Park was technically on-leash, this rule was largely unknown and disregarded. “Has there been any enforcement on the Pyrmont Point Park since April 2008?” he said. “I’d be very surprised if there was.”
The award for the evening’s most heated spray, however, was awarded by a clear margin to Cr Phillip Black. “I’m sorry to say this, but again, we’ve got an unhappy part of the community which cannot accept the umpire’s decision,” he said. “This Council goes through a huge amount of public consultation…and we end up with a disgruntled rump of the community, who come back because they can’t accept the majority’s decision.”
Cr Moore said she believed the issue was about equity. “We don’t just provide our parks for certain groups, we provide them for everyone, and that includes dog owners,” she said. “I’d really like to urge you not to punish the responsible majority for [the sake of] perhaps the irresponsible minority.”
Deputy Lord Mayor Marcelle Hoff, who led the campaign to make the Water Police Park site an on-leash area, said the notion of making it off-leash was inequitable, unfair and undemocratic. “I don’t have anything against dogs; I have an enormous amount of difficulty with irresponsible dog owners,” she said.
The City’s Director of City, Community and Cultural Services, Garry Harding, noted there had only been one official complaint about irresponsible dog behaviour from the parks over the previous three months.
“I think it’s a very positive outcome,” area resident and dog owner Deborah Croft told City News. “One of the reasons we moved here was that it was pet friendly – allows us to socialise with other dog owners. It’s a good atmosphere to catch up in a relaxed environment.”
Fellow resident Stella Phelan, also a dog owner, said she believed a compromise solution would have been preferable. “I had personally come to the conclusion that [a] shared [solution] would be best – perhaps split between morning and evening because of the use of it by babies and small children,” she said.
