Hampstead Heath is limiting the number of dog walkers allowed in the park

Fewer dogs could be given their daily walks on Hampstead Heath soon as the City of London seeks to introduce a licensing scheme for professional dog walkers. 

The new scheme would see only 40 licenses issued a year and would cover the Heath, Queen’s Park and Highgate Wood. Initially it was suggested that walkers would be given a permit to walk their canine charges in either the morning (between 7am and 12pm) or the afternoon (12pm-5pm), but this has since been dropped from the scheme by the City of London. 

The licenses would also only allow walkers to take four dogs onto the Heath at one time. The City of London has introduced the measure over safety concerns, saying it had received complaints about walkers exercising 10 dogs at once and struggling to control them. 

More than 4,800 people have signed a petition against the scheme, which was started by the Hampstead Professional Dog Walkers Association (HPDWA), since it was first announced last year. They say the restrictions, which will begin in October 2021, will mean small businesses that have already been under pressure during the pandemic will not be able to continue under the new regulations. 

The HPDWA has asked the City of London to increase the dog limit per walk to six, with a maximum of four dogs off the lead at one time. They also want there to be no cap on the number of licenses available or at least 100 to be available, no time restrictions on the licenses and to make the licenses transferable between dog walkers working at the same company. 

The City of London has said the number of licenses would be kept under review and that additional licenses would be considered as long as they wouldn’t impact wildlife and disrupt the Heath’s recreational users. The RSPCA has also backed the scheme, of which similar ones are already in operation in boroughs including Wandsworth and Battersea, and in the Royal Parks. Wandsworth’s scheme has 50 licenses available allowing walkers to walk a maximum of eight dogs at once, while the Royal Parks’ scheme allows licenses to be transferred between colleagues. 

‘Currently, only a small number of local authorities have anything that resembles regulations for dog walkers, which means there are no checks on who these people are and how they ensure the needs of the dogs in their care are being met,’ the charity’s dog welfare expert Dr Sam Gaines told the Guardian. 

The HPDWA say they are still in negotiations with the Hampstead Heath Management Committee and are hopeful that a scheme will be introduced that is equal to ones in operation in other parts of London. 

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