I have been searching for more areas to walk my dog off-lead in the shire and have been disappointed. 

I understand work is underway to make Kirrawee dog park better, which is awesome. But the council's own website shows only 6 off-leash areas within the whole of the shire! Some of these are time-shared (greenhills) and others are unbelievably busy in summer(silver beach) that you have to park miles away to find the beach full!

A Few stats that should be considered: A council report states that in April 2020 there were over 56000 registered dogs in the Sutherland Shire. No doubt that number has increased with COVID puppies everywhere. According to the 2016 census, there were over 84000 dwellings in the Sutherland shire, this number has also increased, but it just goes to show there is more than 1 dog per every 2 households and 6 dog parks is not enough. 

These areas are so helpful for younger pups to socialise and learn from other animals and being able to play with other dogs while safely exercising and burning their energy.

Other council areas are much better at prescribing areas for dogs to be off-leash in areas and even time-share with sports fields to increase accessibility and I propose the same. Most cricket fields such as Miranda, Tonkin and Sutherland as well as footy fields such as Gymea, Menai and De La Salle would be perfect time-shared areas as they are actually used quite little outside of sports and training times and mostly fenced in.

I'm hoping to reach 1000 signature's so this can be presented with a chance of consideration so please send this amongst your friends, family and social media groups to get more off-leash areas/times around the Sutherland shire!