If you lose your dog while in Woking, contact the dog warden, during normal office hours (Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm) phone 01483 755855.
Outside of normal office hours phone (Monday to Friday, 5pm to 8.30am, including all day Saturday, all day Sunday and Bank Holidays) 01483 730872.
If you find a dog that appears to be without its owner you are obliged by law to inform the Council. The dog will be kept in kennels for seven day, and if the owner comes forward and pays the charges, the dog is delivered back to them.
If the dog is not claimed within seven days, all reasonable attempts will be made to re-home them.
In response to the public, Woking Council has adopted the Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996. The Council receives over 100 complaints about dog fouling a year.
If you are witnessed failing to clear up your dogs waste, you will be offered a Fixed Penalty Notice. Similar to a speeding ticket, you have the option to accept this Notice and pay the fixed penalty of £50 within 14 days, or alternatively face prosecution in the Magistrates’ Court. The maximum penalty upon conviction is currently £1,000. Registered blind people are exempt.
The Act applies even in areas where bins are not provided so you must always take your waste home with you for disposal if you cannot find a bin.
It is now an offence not to clear up immediately after your dog on all land, both public and private to which the public has access, including
•highways (including private roads)
•footways
•open spaces
•playing fields / public parks
•verges
•play areas
•housing amenity greens
•canal towpaths
•public footpaths, bridleways and adjoining verges
Some areas are exempt, these include:
•road and adjoining land with a speed limit of more than 40mph
•woodland or agricultural land
•marshland, moor or heath
•rural common land
The Council is under no obligation to provide dog waste bins. However, they do provide bins on Council owned areas of land to encourage people to clean up after their dogs. The Council cannot erect bins on privately owned land.
If a dog bin is full please place waste in a waste bin, or take the waste home with you. You can also inform the Council’s Environmental Health Service or the contractor responsible for emptying dog bins, on 01483 775422.
Under the Control of Dogs Order of 1992, every dog must wear a collar with the name and address of its owner inscribed upon it while in a public place.
Dogs must be kept under control at all times, depending on the location and the individual dog, this may mean keeping them on a lead. There is one ‘dogs on leads’ area in Woking Park, where dogs are not allowed off lead.
Dogs are banned under local byelaws from all of the Council’s fenced children’s play areas. Failure to comply with these byelaws is a criminal offence, carrying a fine of £500.