Professional dog walkers will pay less to use parks

Licences for those offering paid services in Bristol parks are due to be rolled out in early 2026

Professional dog walkers will pay less than other groups to use a city's parks.

Parks Business Licences for those offering paid services in any of Bristol's 400 parks and green spaces are due to be rolled out in early 2026.

It was initially proposed the licence would cost £450 per person, per park, per year. However, the proposals were temporarily put on hold and the exact amount businesses will be charged is yet to be confirmed.

After pressure from dog walkers, Bristol City Council has agreed to reduce their fees, compared to other businesses such as personal trainers holding bootcamp classes.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the reduced fee was revealed by councillor Stephen Williams at a meeting on Friday, after warnings a £450 fee would be unaffordable for some dog walkers.

Rebecca Wilson, one affected dog walker, said dog walking was a "hand to mouth model" and there was not "anywhere like £450 profit in an average, good, responsible dog walker's business per year".

She said the cost would be passed directly onto those "using invaluable dog walking services" and said it would increase the number of dogs in a park at any one time as they would be "forced" to walk more dogs at once.

Ms Wilson said the proposed £450 fee would also be hard to pay for part-time dog walkers.

Mr Williams said the council's primary aim was to monitor what commercial activities are taking place across the city's green spaces and check whether businesses had qualifications and the relevant insurance.

After a backlash earlier this year, the proposals were paused while council staff revisited them.

"When we published the original, quite simple scheme, back in the summer, it quickly became apparent that there were issues with it. I withdrew it at that point and said we would reconsider, both for personal trainers and commercial dog walkers," said Mr Williams.

Mr Williams said the council had since redesigned the scheme to the point where he was "more or less happy with it". He said while conversations were still taking place, it had created a separate bespoke scheme for commercial dog walkers.

"We recognise the economics in that area are quite different to what's going on in large bootcamps," he said.