Blackpool's Stanley Park is a well loved location by locals with wildlife, gardens, footballs pitches, tennis courts, boating lakes, along with newer inclusions of a BMX track, and a refurbished skatepark - The local park is branching out to please all visitors. Except the four legged ones.

A new ban is in place excluding dogs from over half of the parks public areas.

Over time dog walkers have been pushed into a smaller and smaller area for safe off-leash walking. The main area currently used is the abandoned bowling green, with six lawns, walkways, and a semi secure border, it became a perfect area for dogs to exercise safely. 

With the new ban in place, all dog walkers would be forced to use the playing fields to exercise their dogs off-lead. This poses serious issues with the lack of public bins, the large open area with no secure fencing, the proximity to busy roads, and the use by other members of the public for various activities.

The bowling green provides the perfect opportunity for Stanley Park to invest in its majority of visitors, and work with them to create a safe, secure, and sanitary dog park. This would include secure fencing and gates, ample access to bins, and less tedious lawn care.

While respect is given to the historical use of the green as a place for bowling - it has long been in disuse. Should the public opinion be towards refurbishing and setting up the bowling once again, the problem still remains - There are no safe areas for dogs to exercise off-lead.

Please sign the petition for Stanley Park to remove the dog exclusion from the bowling green, to invest in redevelopment allowing the green to become a secure dog park, or alternatively, investing in a new area of the park to become a dedicated dog park.

It's a public park, so it should be a public choice.