Dog-free zones needed to make outdoor spaces ‘anti-racist’, Welsh government told
Dog-free zones should be introduced to help make the Welsh outdoors “anti-racist”, the Welsh government has been advised.
A report by climate action group Climate Cymru BAME has recommended the canine-free areas should be introduced to “local green spaces” as part of the government’s Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan.
Labour’s devolved administration has pledged to rid Wales of racism by 2030 and set out a plan to ensure “all areas” of public life all transformed.
The report, submitted on the 6 November, does not elaborate on how the policy would help inclusion or tackle racism.
However, an evidence report also published by North Wales Africa Society, which works with Climate Cymru BAME, said a study found Black African females were concerned over a “general lack of safety” in some parks.
One female said she felt unsafe with the presence of dogs as she feared an attack.
The Welsh Government launched its anti-racism plan in 2022, and is now looking to include work on climate change, rural affairs and the environment based on evidence from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) people across Wales.
The proportion of Bame individuals and households in Wales has risen from 4.4 per cent in 2011 to 6.2 per cent in 2021, according to the latest census.
Other recommendations in the report include encouraging a greater number of minority ethnic people to volunteer in the environmental sector.
A communication strategy to “help bridge the gap” between minority ethnic people and community-led initiatives is also suggested.
The Welsh Conservatives have hit out at the report, labelling it “nonsense”. Leader Andrew RT Davies said: “Divisive nonsense submitted as part of Labour’s so called ‘Anti Racist Wales Action Plan’.
“The whole thing should be scrapped. Labour is stuck on yesterday’s thinking, the kind that is being roundly rejected globally. Time to turf them out,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
A Welsh government spokesperson said it was “committed to creating an anti-racist nation by 2030”.
“Our anti-racist Wales action plan is built on the values of anti-racism and calls for zero tolerance of all racial inequality,” it added.
Dog-free zones needed to make outdoor spaces ‘anti-racist’, Welsh government told