From Thursday 4th November a notice has appeared in the fields where a lot of Tewkesbury residents walk their dogs, and have done for many years. It tells us that with immediate effect all dogs must be kept on a lead, to a maximum length of 2 meters and they aren’t allowed to run around for their exercise. They are also banned from going into any of the water in the reserve.

I have walked my dogs in these fields for about 15 years and will not be adhering to this nonsense. This petition is to request that Tewkesbury Nature Reserve withdraws these new rules as they are harsh and unfair. In this time of lockdown surely they should be encouraging people and their dogs to take exercise.

While I understand perfectly well what the nature reserve are trying to achieve, and indeed would applaud them for some of the changes they have made, I cannot agree that all of the fields are out of bounds for exercising dogs. There are already 2 large areas which are fenced and gated to make them secure, a perfectly good idea, but as for the rest of the fields please let us have our freedom back to exercise our dogs.

At present there are no livestock in these fields and when there are, I will walk my dogs in other fields which will then be livestock free.