Public Spaces Protection Orders

On the 23^rd November 2021 approval was given to extend and continue with the Public Spaces Protection Order for Dog Controls in Torfaen and this replaced our previous Order. The new Order will apply in Torfaen for a 3 year period 15 July 2022 until 1 December 2024. The scope of the new Order has been developed following a public consultation exercise that was carried out in 2021. Under the new Order there are three types of restrictions; dog fouling, dog exclusion areas and dogs on leads areas:

1. Dog Fouling

This will apply County Borough wide, where it is an offence to fail to remove dog faeces from any land to which the public have access. This offence has not changed since the previous Order.

2. Dog Exclusion Areas

The Order has 140 dog exclusion areas.

As with the previous Order, dogs are excluded from school grounds, children’s play areas and marked sports pitches (Just marked out sports pitches are affected. Sports pitches may be marked with white lines or grass die back brown lines. Alternatively pitches may have some sort of fencing, barrier or rope line defining the pitch area. Dogs are allowed around the edges of marked pitches and in-between marked pitches). Dogs are also excluded from the Lapwing Breeding Area (Garn Lakes Wetlands Area) near the Garn Lakes Nature Reserve.

3. Dogs on Leads Areas

This is a restriction that has not previously been adopted in Torfaen and makes it an offence to let a dog off the lead in specified areas. The specified areas are:

• Garn Lakes Nature Reserve in Blaenavon (dogs must be kept on a lead at all times whilst walking around the main lakes)
• Cwmbran Boating Lake (dogs must be kept on a lead at all times whilst walking around the lake, around the café area and the children’s play areas)
• All 4 of the council’s cemeteries – Blaenavon Cemetery, Panteg Cemetery, Cwmbran Cemetery & Llwyncelyn Cemetery. Dogs must be kept on a lead at all times whilst inside the cemetery boundaries.

View the Public Space Protection Orders on our mapping system.

A copy of the Torfaen County Borough Council (Dog Control) Public Spaces Protection Order 2022 can be accessed here.

Dog Exclusion areas are highlighted in RED and Dogs on Leads areas in GREEN. Using the mapping system you can search for a specific area that may be of interest to you according to the street name, village, town, ward etc.

What is the penalty for failing to comply with the Public Space Protection Order- Dog Controls?

Torfaen County Borough Council will offer a fixed penalty notice of £100 for offences contained within the Public Spaces Protection Order. Failure to pay the fixed penalty notice will result in the council taking legal action which may result in a maximum fine of level 3 on the standard scale, which is currently £1,000.