Dog rules run on from 20 October, but the £100 cap on fixed penalties has gone from the new order. Maidstone town centre had no begging order for three weeks.
Maidstone’s dog control rules are being renewed for another three years, and the £100 ceiling on fines has been taken out of the new order.
The Cabinet Member for Community Cohesion and Safety signed two Public Spaces Protection Order decisions on Monday 21 September. One renews the borough-wide dog control order for three years. The other makes a new town centre order covering begging and street drinking, replacing one that expired three weeks ago.
Both decisions take effect on 29 September and both are open to call-in until then. Neither has been called in so far.
What the dog order controls
The order applies across the borough. It carries seven controls, plus a requirement to give your name and address to an authorised officer:
- removing your dog’s faeces from public land
- proving, when challenged, that you are carrying something to remove them with
- keeping dogs out of children’s play areas and council tennis courts
- keeping dogs on a short lead in the town centre, at Vinters Park Crematorium and at Sutton Road Cemetery
- putting a dog on a lead when an authorised officer directs it
- keeping a dog under proper control
- walking no more than four dogs at once, or six for registered professional walkers and licensed boarders
The draft defines a short lead as about 4ft, or 1.2m, or a longer lead locked at that length (draft order). Guide dogs and assistance dogs are exempt.
None of that is changing. The current order expires on 19 October, and the draft says the replacement comes into force on 20 October 2026 and runs for three years.
The £100 is no longer written down
The order in force today is explicit about money. It says an authorised person may issue a fixed penalty notice “up to £100” for controls 1 to 7. That is the maximum the legislation allows.
The published draft of the new order names no figure at all.
The council’s decision record explains why in a single line: “Following advice from the Legal team, the specific Fixed Penalty Notice values were removed from Appendix 1 to give more flexibility.”
There is a second change in the drafting. The order in force applies fixed penalties to controls 1 to 7. As published, the draft’s fixed penalty clauses name controls 1 to 4, then control 5 separately, with the option of an early payment discount. Controls 6 and 7, keeping a dog under control and the limit on numbers, are not named in those clauses.
Residents were asked about the fine during the review, and they did not ask for it to be softened. Of 377 weighted responses to that question, 304 backed keeping it at £100. Of the 126 comments left on it, 98 argued the fine should be higher, with suggested figures running from £150 to £1,000. The next most common theme was that £100 is too low to deter anyone (consultation report).
How much the order is actually used
The officer report gives a number that has not been published before: 131 fixed penalty notices have been issued for breaches of the order since July 2023 (report).
It also makes the stakes clear. The Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996 has been repealed, so the PSPO is now “the primary mechanism through which dog fouling offences can be enforced within the borough”. If it lapsed, the council would have little else to use.
The review drew 413 weighted responses between 27 February and 26 April 2026. The report records support of between 81% and 98% across the measures. Officers found no evidence that any control should be dropped, and no case for adding one.
What people did ask for was more of it. The commonest complaints in the consultation were about enforcement being invisible, about bins, particularly their removal from Mote Park, and about extending the dogs-on-leads rule to Mote Park and Cobtree Manor. Residents named worsening fouling in Allington, Hermitage Park, Staplehurst, Weavering Street, Fant, Poplar Park, South Park, King George V Playing Field, Kingswood and Barming.
One drafting point is worth flagging, because it is the document that gets sealed. The decision authorises renewal of the order “as set out in Appendix 2 to the report”. Appendix 2 is the consultation report. The draft order is Appendix 1.
The town centre order ran out on 31 August
The second decision is the one with a gap in it.
Maidstone’s town centre PSPO, which restricts begging and anti-social street drinking, has existed since 2017 and was renewed in 2020 and 2023. The officer report states plainly that it expired on 31 August 2026 at the end of its three-year term. The replacement was not signed until 21 September and does not take effect until 29 September.
The new order covers the same area and keeps the same two restrictions:
- Begging, extended beyond the existing criminal offence to cover approaching people, loitering in doorways or beside a cashpoint, and using signs, cups, children or animals to solicit money. Collections by registered charities are exempt.
- Street drinking, where drinking has a detrimental effect on others. An officer can require someone to stop, to hand over the alcohol, and then to stop drinking anywhere in the area for 24 hours.
The report is careful to say this “does not constitute an alcohol ban”. Drinking outside a licensed premises or under a pavement licence is not covered.
The consultation ran alongside the dog one and drew 361 responses, with 93.1% supporting continuation. Sixteen respondents said they were worried about genuinely homeless people being criminalised. The council’s answer is that street homelessness in the town centre “has largely been eradicated”, that the order is used as a last resort, and that it is most useful against people who are not homeless and travel in to beg.
What the crime figures say
The report carries town centre crime for 2025 against 2024, taken from the council’s 2026 Strategic Assessment:
| Category | Change on 2024 |
|---|---|
| Violence against the person | down 14.9% |
| Anti-social behaviour | down 13.1% |
| Crimes against society | up 0.6% |
| Shoplifting | up 10.3% |
Officers attribute part of the shoplifting rise to better reporting, and note they are seeing more theft of “essential” items such as food and nappies rather than luxury goods, which they describe as a national pattern linked to the cost of living.
The report also sets out a communications aim in unusually blunt terms. Improving public perception “remains an area of priority”, it says, and work is under way with the council’s communications team and One Maidstone “to challenge the narrative created by social media and local news reporting”.
What it means for you
If you walk a dog in Maidstone, nothing you have to do changes on 20 October. The seven rules are the same ones. What has changed is that the order itself no longer states what a breach costs, and the two controls about keeping a dog under control and the number you may walk are not named in the draft’s fixed penalty clauses.
If you want to object, there are two routes and both are short:
- Call-in. Both decisions are subject to call-in and take effect on 29 September. That is a route for councillors, through the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, not for the public directly.
- The High Court. Under section 66 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, an interested person can challenge the validity of a PSPO within six weeks of the date the order is made, on the grounds that the council had no power to make it or did not follow the statutory process.
The contact named on both reports is Martyn Jeynes, the council’s Safer Stronger Communities Manager.
For the rules that apply where you live, see our guides to bin collection days and parking in Maidstone. Two other decisions cover the same town centre area: the Brewer Street traffic ban and the Article 4 direction on five office sites, signed a week earlier.
Sources
- Decision 1748: Public Spaces Protection Order renewal, Dog Control, decision made 21 September 2026, effective 29 September
- Decision 1749: Public Spaces Protection Order, Town Centre Renewal, decision made 21 September 2026, effective 29 September
- Officer report: Dog Control PSPO renewal and its draft order and consultation report
- Officer report: Town Centre PSPO and its draft order
- Maidstone Borough Council: the dog control order in force (in force 20 October 2023 for three years)
- Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, section 66 (challenging a PSPO)
Both reports were considered by the Housing and Community Cohesion Policy Advisory Committee on 15 September 2026. Papers read on 23 September 2026.
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