DOG owners have described a heavy duty fence to prevent toddlers falling in the river at Ashburton's Recreation Ground as complete overkill.

The 1.8m vandal-proof palisade type fence has been installed as part of an £80,000 play park scheme still under construction.

Manfred Ropschitz, who walks his dog Roxy there every day, says that dog owners are the biggest group using the Recreation Ground but their needs have been overlooked.

'Before the fence we had shrubbery here, which meant dogs could find their way through to the water. Now they've installed this, it looks like it should be round an electricity sub-station.

'It's really heavy duty angle iron fence. It looks hideous and is completely out of character. Till now it's been perfectly safe to have low visibility netting – that's what they have at the current play park. I don't recall that it led to catastrophes.'

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