21/08/2026
A different perspective on the proposed dog exercise area
Your support counts. ✅
Bingley View Dog Park is an award-winning, small, family-run local business. Our proposal was never about taking away the recreation ground, stopping people from enjoying it, or putting dogs before children.
We were trying to provide an additional, secure dog-walking facility for local residents.
The recreation ground is rightly there for everyone — children, families, walkers and dog owners. But, as members of the local dog-walking community, we have seen first-hand some of the difficulties that can arise when dogs are off lead in an open recreation area.
Dogs can chase footballs, squirrels, cats, sheep or other distractions. Without suitable gates, there is also the possibility of dogs leaving the recreation ground altogether.
Our proposal was intended to offer a practical solution: a smaller, purpose-built and secure off-lead area, accessible from the recreation ground, where residents could exercise their dogs without the risk of them running around children or children's play equipment.
Importantly, this was intended primarily as a walk-to facility for local residents, rather than a drive-to dog field attracting people from further afield. The aim was to provide somewhere convenient for people already living locally and using the recreation ground, not to create another destination that would generate additional traffic and parking demand.
The facility was not intended for large or unsuitable dogs, nor for professional dog walkers bringing groups of dogs. These points were clearly set out in our planning statement.
Unfortunately, we feel that some of these details have not been fully understood, and that we were not given the opportunity to properly discuss or clarify the proposal with Bradford Council.
We also tried to address the concerns that were raised, including parking. There are currently no parking restrictions around the recreation ground, and we even had support from our local pub, The Busfeild Arms, in exploring a possible solution to the parking concern. We still felt that our attempts to find solutions were not properly heard.
This isn't about commercialising the recreation ground.
It isn't about putting dogs before children.
It's about providing an additional facility that could help reduce conflict between dogs, children and other users, while giving local dog owners somewhere safe and responsible to exercise their pets.
We completely understand that planning applications have to be properly assessed and that not everyone will support our proposal. But we believe the full picture should be understood before people make up their minds.
We are local people trying to find a practical solution to an issue that already exists in our community.
Ultimately, we'd much rather have a constructive conversation about how we can make the recreation ground safer and more enjoyable for everyone — dog owners, children, families and other residents alike.
Please support us by sharing this post and helping people understand what we were actually proposing. ❤️
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c934zkj40dko?fbclid=IwdGRzaAT02MhjbGNrBPTYq3Bkb2YBZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEerq60q62ToNvCrIiq4rORt9HJtdlE6qaXcW3W6iW8ZfrqftpKwoWcRN6iQck_aem_KLF2NdYNTQNLnw7KEq7gvA&sfnsn=scwspwa
Plans to expand Bingley View Dog Park into a neighbouring field were rejected by Bradford Council.
