Labour-run Wales has been told to ban dogs from parts of the countryside to help make the outdoors ‘anti-racist’.
The devolved administration has vowed to end racism in the country by 2030 and ensure ‘all areas’ of public life are transformed.
According to a report funded by the Welsh government to help steer its ‘anti-racist’ policy, dog-free zones should be set up to make outdoor areas more inclusive.
A government spokesman today insisted it was not planning to act on the proposal and dogs ‘would continue to be welcomed in the hills of Wales’.
The creation of ‘dog-free areas in local green spaces’ is one of a slate of recommendations in the evidence report, compiled by environmental group Climate Cymru BAME.
Others include creating more urban allotments where people can grow their own food and handing out grants and subsidies to students, members of ethnic minorities and asylum seekers to help them ‘commit more to environment and climate change issues’.
The taxpayer-funded report has been widely slated online and was described by Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies as ‘virtual signalling nonsense’.
‘This kind of outdated virtue signalling nonsense is completely out of touch with the needs of the people of Wales,’ he told the Telegraph.
‘Labour is stuck on yesterday’s thinking, the kind that is being roundly rejected globally. Time to turf them out.’
On the basis of reports provided to date, the Welsh Government has concluded that ethnic minorities face ‘barriers’ to the outdoors created by ‘exclusions and racism’.
The reason why dog-free areas would help tackle racism is not explained in the report, which will be used by the government to ‘support policy teams’ that are ‘developing and implementing’ Wales’ anti-racist plans.
Climate Cymru BAME was set up by Climate Cymru, a larger environmental campaign group made up of 370 organisations from across Wales.
Climate Cymru BAME consists of around 20 members made up of students and professionals who have interest in environmental preservation and protection, who work with North Wales Africa Society (NWAS), Sub Sahara Advisory Board (SSAP) and the Northwest Wales Climate Action Group.
A separate set of recommendations submitted by the NWAS also called for ‘dog-free areas’.
It said that during one of its focus groups, ‘one black African female stated that she feels unsafe with the presence of dogs’.
Others also kept ‘seeing dog fouling on the floor’, the report added.
The NWAS report said that barriers to outdoor activities include the perception that growing food in gardens or allotments is ‘dominated by middle-aged white women’.
Its authors also informed the Welsh government that people from ethnic minorities were upset about the ‘low quality’ of local green spaces.
One person complained that ‘the green spaces are not respected in areas where there is a bigger population of ethnic minority people’.
Other problems flagged included lack of public transport to non-urban green spaces and poor air quality in towns and cities.
The report also found that some BAME who provided evidence had ‘concerns of the lack of understanding and relationships by the wider white population particularly in rural areas’.
It added there were ‘concerns of the lack of understanding and relationships by the wider white population particularly in rural areas, from personal experiences’.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: ‘These comments are feedback from people who were asked their views and NOT proposals.
‘There are NO plans to ban dogs from the countryside and any suggestion otherwise is inaccurate and a complete misrepresentation of the report.’
- The headline to an earlier version of this article claimed that dogs had been banned from the Welsh countryside. In fact, as the copy clarified, the proposal to create dog-free areas is a suggestion made to the government by Climate Cymru BAME. A spokesperson for the First Minister said in response that ‘dogs will continue to be welcomed in the hillsides of Wales.’
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