Dog walkers slapped with £150 annual permit fee to use parks

Dog walkers, pop-up picnic vendors, and parents-to-be planning on hosting gender reveal parties will soon be forced to fork out big time to use public parks and green spaces, with a cash-strapped local council set to implement a range of new and newly increased permits for public use.

The new policy, adopted in March by a local council in Sydney, Australia, will see a raft of new charges introduced to people wanting to use local parks, common areas and green spaces for commercial and group uses of its public open spaces.

The fees and charges will apply to more than 20 parks and reserves under the North Sydney Council.

Proposed fees include a £150 annual permit for dog walkers, while weddings and gender reveals that require “the structured use of public open space for a defined purpose” could see people pay of £1,000 for each three-hour block.

Social gatherings of more than 21 people will also have to fork out up to £25, whereas groups of up to 100 people will have to fork out up to £250 for using a public space

The proposed fee structure will be voted on in July after a period of public consultation ended last week.

Speaking to Australia’s national broadcaster the ABC, North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker said that feedback on fee proposed fee structure had been mostly positive, although some commercial operators and residents had said they were left confused by the process.

The cash-strapped local council appears to be attempting to recover its debts after spunking an eye watering £64.4 million on a redevelopment of the North Sydney Olympic Pool, which had been originally slated to cost the local government.a mere £29.5 million.

In an attempt to financially recover from the ballooned pool costs, North Sydney Council originally sought to increase rates by 87 per cent.

However, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal knocked back the move in 2025, ruling the council had not made a compelling enough case to increase rates by such a significant amount. Then, council explored charging for vantage points to view the New Year’s Eve fireworks and encouraged fancy private schools in the area to pay rates on land they already own.

Dog walker Chris Hanwell told the ABC the new fees were “not great timing” with cost-of-living crisis continuing to rise.

He added: “To just introduce an extra additional cost on top of all those other things seems a bit like [they’re] not reading the room particularly well.

The small business owner added he already for permits to use parks on the northern beaches and in Mosman, which could cost between £250 and £1,000.

Another small business owner Vicki Ryvchin, who has been running pop-up picnics in the North Sydney area to help people celebrate special occasions, said she only found out about the proposed set of fees in a small business group chat. She said that the new costs, if implemented, will “kill an entire industry”.

Under the new fee structure, she would need to pay £40 per three hours to operate, in addition to an £150 annual permit.

“We’re happy to pay a higher annual fee and prove our public liability year-on-year… but it’s the per-event charges that are completely unreasonable and unjustified,” she said.

“People want to be outside, all we’re doing is just facilitating a picnic … [and] encouraging people to use our beautiful spaces that everybody pays taxes for.”