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Park licence fees to be rolled out despite ‘harsh feedback’
Professional dog walkers and personal trainers will still be charged licence fees to use parks in Bristol despite harsh feedback earlier in autumn.
But Bristol City Council won’t consult the public about its controversial plans to make small businesses pay for parks licences.
In September, the council suddenly revived plans to charge £450 for people to hold exercise classes in parks across the city.
These were however paused after an immediate backlash, with Green councillors saying the steep fees were “inappropriate” and could harm small businesses.
In early 2026 the new fees will be revealed, which might be less than initially planned.
The licence fees will be targeted at commercial businesses and classes – photo: Seun Matiluko
Leading councillors faced questions during a meeting of the member forum on Tuesday.
Affected businesses are being asked to apply for a licence, so council staff can gather data.
Liberal Democrat councillor for Westbury-on-Trym and Henleaze Stephen Williams, chair of the public health and communities policy committee, said: “I expect we’ll be able to make a decision well in advance of budget full council in February.
“The activities we’re trying to regulate, licence and charge a fee to cover that, are commercial activities by businesses.
“They’re not activities by members of the public in general. Obviously there will be an effect on the customers of those businesses. But they are specifically about the activities of commercial operators in our parks.
“We opened applications for a licence a few months ago, received some harsh feedback from operators and political colleagues, and paused it.
“But we’re still analysing the information that came in, which has been incredibly useful and enables us to design a scheme that better fits what we think are the activities taking place in our parks.
“The truth is we didn’t really know the full extent of what was taking place in our parks. Now we have a better picture and I’m sure we’ll have a much better scheme matching that.”
He added that businesses in parks don’t tend to seek permission from the council.
There’s a lack of information about whether these firms are insured as well, and this is particularly relevant for exercise classes where injuries could occur.
The Downs will have different fees for licences – photo: Betty Woolerton
The original fee structure was benchmarked against licences in other council areas.
This quickly prompted a backlash with dog walkers complaining the fees could put them out of business. Staff are now reviewing the impact on small businesses, and might change the fee structure.
A “discovery phase” will last until the end of November, while the council collects information to assess the impact of new fees. After November, the application form will stay open for new businesses to apply for a licence.
Changes to the fees will be announced early in 2026.
Conservative councillor for Henbury & Brentry Mark Weston said: “It’s the public that use these services, that use the dog walkers and sports clubs and everything else. So it’ll have an impact on them.
“The sums raised will be insignificant in relation to the budget — so is the pain worth it?”
Alex Seabrook is a local democracy reporter for Bristol
Main photo: Seun Matiluko
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