Not sure about a postcode-wide ban Brian and dog mess is infuriating but only life threatening when you eat it. I agree it's too small a space for excercising dogs and it renders a whole area unsuitable for kids. The museum DO need to decide who they prioritise. However, I have a nagging suspicion that appeasing the many dog-lovers within the vocal and disproportionately powerful Tewksbury Lodge Residents' Association (under whose banner, I note, the meeting on Sunday is arranged) plays no small part in any decision the musem might make about this.

No I'm talking most here about the unpredictable impulsive sharp-toothed bags of mongrel muscle that tug along their delinquent owners (leads make no difference here Sue). I and my wife came across them in the Horniman repeatedly last summer so looks like we have been repeatedly unlucky.

Attacks by these dogs are up 40% in the last 5 years and (Applespider) I have been run at by these dogs twice while running and it's downright scary. This isn't about "privacy" it's about safety. There is little police can do to intervene unless there are repeated attacks by the same dog or a one off attack that leads to death or near death - let alone much a park keeper can do. What criteria would you suggest for excluding these dogs? You say behaving antisocially. Not sure this is precise enough to allow park keepers to feel confident letting in docile Labrador and then barring snarling pit bull cross.

There is one workable solution. Ban them all. Send them over the road. What do dogs care if their surroundings are "unpleasant"? Anyway it's supposedly pleasant enough for small children. You are equating the rights of dog owners and parents Applespider and I'm sorry but it's another example of our country's bizzare and often contemptuous attitude to children.