MR MAYOR, I am horrified that as a dog owner you are about to make our Cirencester dogs’ lives just a lot less fun.

Imagine old age pensioners, unable to walk far, having to keep their dog on a lead rather than allowing it to have a good romp.

Life for a dog on a lead must be the most miserable and restricted existence and could well result in frustrated dogs taking out their grievances on their owners or even passing children.

Surely there is a more sensible solution? Dogs are not – quite correctly in my view – allowed into the play area.

Why can there not be a sensible area fenced off for picnics or for those people who don’t like happy free-running dogs to go and sit?

Why have we become such a politically correct, litigious, urban-loving intolerant community?

In the country animals defecate in the open. Responsible dog owners pick up after them but, occasionally, some do not. They should be prosecuted.

As for upsetting the wildlife. What does that mean? A few ducks getting chased or even an occasional death.

That is what wildlife grows up to understand and live with. Otherwise it wouldn’t be wildlife – it would be behind bars in a zoo.

And anyway, how many such incidents have there been over the many, many years of wonderful open unrestricted public space?

A shining example of how this freedom for dogs works is the Bathurst Park. Here dogs race about having the time of their lives, with the vast majority of owners cleaning up after them.

Those that don’t, or poos that get missed, are regularly cleaned up by badgers.

This so-called trial period in the Abbey Grounds will become a real problem for dog owners.

Presumably all those who want dogs on leads will say it is a great improvement.

This will make it much harder to go back to the status quo.

I believe a serious error has been made in pandering to those among us who find the occasional mess of living in a country town not to their liking.

There is an obvious solution to that, of course.

It is not too late to have a serious rethink.

CHRISTOPHER CORNELL

Cirencester