Our sites are for everyone to enjoy

What unseasonably beautiful weather we are having at the moment! It has been great to see so many people out and about enjoying the early spring weather on foot, with their dogs, on bikes and on horses. The Millennium Country Park and all our other community woodlands are here for everyone to enjoy. It is important that we all respect each other in whatever way we choose to enjoy these wonderful sites.

Sadly, one of the most consistent grumbles we continue to get (and we have written about this before) is dogs not being under close control. We do allow off-lead walking on all our sites but that doesn’t mean dogs can be allowed to run free wherever they choose. I see it every day - dogs far from, and often out of sight of their owners- and it is not acceptable.

In the last few weeks, there have been two terrible incidents in the Park - a lamb was attacked by a dog and subsequently died, and a man was bitten by a dog that was a substantial distance from its owner. Both of these incidents are obviously very serious and the police have been notified - and both could easily have been avoided if the dog owners had been responsible and kept their dogs on leads.

It's not just about biting...

As we head into spring, wildlife is particularly sensitive to disturbance. Most notably, nesting birds. Birds nest on the ground, in hedgerows, in tussocks of grass, in reed, in bramble as well as in shrubs and trees. Dogs hurtling around, far from their owners, can cause a huge amount of harm to wildlife we should all play our part in caring for.

It's not everyone and we are very grateful to the responsible dog owners who use our sites but the people who don't keep their dogs under close control really do ruin it for everyone. Please be considerate of your fellow Park users and the wonderful wildlife around you. If you can’t be 100% confident in controlling your dog, keep it on a lead!

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For more information about the Millennium Country Park, please click here.