The borough is reviewing its dog control orders until 27 September. The £80 fine, the four-dog limit, and every park where dogs are banned or must be on a lead.

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council opened a six-week consultation at noon on Monday on the rules that govern dog walking in the borough’s parks and open spaces. It closes at 11.59pm on Sunday 27 September 2026 (council announcement).

The orders being reviewed are Public Spaces Protection Orders, or PSPOs. They have been in force for six years, were last reviewed in 2023, and by law must be consulted on at least every three years before they can be renewed. Breaching one is an offence: the council can issue a fixed penalty notice of £80, or prosecute, with a maximum £1,000 penalty on conviction.

Most people who walk a dog here have never read them. Since the council is asking whether to keep, change or drop each one, here is what they actually say.

The three rules that apply everywhere

Three PSPOs cover the whole borough, including public roads, pavements and verges as well as parks and open spaces:

  • Clear up after your dog. The fouling of land order requires the person in charge of the dog to clear any fouling.
  • Put your dog on a lead if an authorised officer asks. This is the “dogs on leads by direction” order. It does not mean a permanent lead requirement.
  • No more than four dogs per person at any one time. The council’s stated reason is that larger groups cannot be properly supervised or cleaned up after.

Beyond those, individual parks carry their own orders, which is where the detail sits.

Where dogs must be on a lead at all times

These are the places where “by direction” does not apply and the lead is required regardless:

Site Area covered
Memorial Park, London Road, Redhill The entire park
Castle Grounds, behind Reigate High Street The whole site
Priory Park, Bell Street, Reigate Formal gardens, from behind the tennis courts to Bell Street and from the Ha Ha to the Morrisons and Bell Street car parks
Priory Park, Reigate The footpath and bank around the lake
Earlswood Common, Redhill Upper and Lower Earlswood Lakes, and the grassed area west of the lower lake to the footpath
Frenches Road Pond amenity area, Redhill The amenity area

The lake and pond restrictions exist to protect waterfowl, and the council’s own explanation of the park-specific orders gives “safety, wildlife or other users” as the reasons for closer control.

Where dogs are not allowed at all

Every enclosed children’s play area in the borough is a dog exclusion area, and so are most tennis courts and multi-use games areas attached to council parks. Several whole sites are also closed to dogs:

  • Banstead Wildlife Field, Bolters Lane, Banstead
  • Jubilee Wood, Tadworth Street, Tadworth
  • Lakers Rise Recreation Ground, Chipstead
  • Redstone Cemetery, Philanthropic Road, Redhill
  • Salfords Recreation Ground, Mead Avenue, Salfords
  • Ifold Road Recreation Ground, Redhill
  • Michael Crescent Recreation Ground, Horley
  • Reigate Garden of Remembrance, Bancroft Court, Reigate
  • Sandcross skate and BMX park, Sandcross Lane, Reigate

Horley has the largest concentration of separate exclusion areas, because the play areas across The Acres at Langshott and Westvale Park are each listed individually. Field Bank, Flint Close, Orchard Drive, Langshott, Peppiatt Close, Tanyard Barn, both Whittaker Drive play areas, Campbell Grove, Knowles Road, Moy Green Drive, Myrtle, Oak Tree, Wicks Farm, Court Lodge Fields and Yattendon Road are all dog-free. So are the play area, tennis courts, multi-use games area and War Memorial Grounds at Horley Recreation Ground.

Where dogs can still run off the lead

The borough’s larger commons and downs are “dogs on lead by direction” areas, meaning off-lead walking is allowed unless an authorised officer asks otherwise, with the fouling and four-dog rules still applying. That covers Banstead Downs, Banstead Heath, Banstead Woods, Park Downs, Walton Heath, Reigate Heath, Redhill Common, Wray Common, Gatton Park, Colley Hill and the adjacent Queens Park land, Petridgewood Common, Weatherhill Common and Alderstead Heath, among others.

What is being proposed

The consultation is not only about renewal. The council says it is also seeking views on proposed new orders covering three new play areas. Those three sites are not named in the council’s published material, and appear in part three of the survey, which asks about introducing PSPOs in additional locations. We have not been able to confirm which play areas they are from a first-party source, so we are not naming them.

Cllr Hannah Avery, Executive Member for Neighbourhood Services, said: “It’s important that we balance the needs of everyone who relies on our public spaces so we can all enjoy them safely.” She added that the council wanted to hear from people who visit these areas “with or without a dog”.

After the consultation closes, officers will weigh the responses alongside evidence from the council’s Greenspaces team and Joint Enforcement Team, the police, local partners and national dog welfare organisations, then make a recommendation to councillors, who decide whether to renew or amend each order.

What it means for you

If you walk a dog here. Nothing has changed yet, and nothing changes during the consultation. The current orders stay in force until councillors decide. The rules worth knowing today are the four-dog limit, the requirement to clear up, and the lead-at-all-times areas listed above, which catch out people who assume Memorial Park and the Priory Park lakeside work like the commons.

If you are a professional dog walker. The four-dog cap applies to you in exactly the same way. The council has specifically invited professional walkers to respond.

If you do not have a dog. The council is explicit that it wants to hear from park users without dogs too, and this is the mechanism through which fouling, off-lead dogs near play areas or problems around the lakes get recorded as evidence.

To respond. The survey is at smartsurvey.co.uk/s/Dog-pspo-renewal and takes 10 to 20 minutes. It is worth reading the page for your own park first, because the questions are park by park. A paper copy can be requested from JET@reigate-banstead.gov.uk, and general comments can be sent to engagement@reigate-banstead.gov.uk. The deadline is 11.59pm on 27 September.

For other practical local information, see our guides to parking in Reigate and bin collection days.

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