THE controversial proposal to ban all dogs from Tavistock Pannier Market was this week overturned by town councillors, in the face of overwhelming opposition from the public.

The move was proposed by town mayor Cllr Philip Sanders last week. At Tuesday's meeting of the full council, he admitted that he had been inundated by emails, phone calls and letters of complaint.

Cllr Sanders said: 'I was probably ill-advised enough to stick my head up over the parapet on this. I've had a lot of stick and a lot of people haven't been pleased.

'We have to respect that people have different views, neither is necessarily wrong or right, but if we lose the ability to be tolerant of others, as a civilised society, we have totally lost the plot.'

Cllr Sanders said since the properties committee made its decision last week, more research had been undertaken.

The town clerk had contacted other markets in Devon to learn about their rules regarding dogs, and also the environmental health department at West Devon Borough Council.

The council was told that it was up to the landlord of the market to make a decision regarding dogs — roughly half the markets contacted allowed them in their premises. As far as health and safety was concerned, dogs should not be allowed where food was being prepared or stored.

Additionally, a survey carried out by Tavistock market traders revealed that 69 out of 72 traders consulted over a two-day period believed dogs should be allowed into the hall.

Market reeve Eddie Carruthers said: 'We get very little trouble with dogs — and if you ban them, it will be very detrimental to takings.'

Cllr Ted Sherrell admitted that initially, he had no strong feelings one way or the other regarding dogs in the market. But since the story broke in last week's Times, he realised the strength of feeling locally about the proposal.

Cllr Sherrell said: 'I think if we'd said we were going to ban people from the market we would have had less trouble. I've had letters, phone calls, people stopping me in the street, and the vast majority say we shouldn't ban dogs from the market.'

Cllr Ashley Tossell said: 'The original discussion was about traders' dogs — I didn't have a view either way about dogs generally, although after this week I probably do. Sensibly, we have to listen to the people we represent, and we do live in a rural area.'

Cllr David Whitcomb said: 'One dear old lady rang me up and said she couldn't go anywhere without her dog, it was her friend. I think there are quite a few people in Tavistock who have that kind of relationship with their dogs, who go everywhere with them, and I am delighted the council is considering changing its mind.'

Cllr Mandy Govier said: 'I am totally against banning dogs — there have been very few problems in the past, so why try to fix something that isn't broken?'

Cllr Govier suggested the only policy change required regarded the tethering of traders' dogs, to make sure they did not wander.

Cllr Brian Trew proposed that shoppers' dogs should be allowed in the market, provided they were on a lead. Traders not selling food products could bring their dogs in with permission from the reeve, as long as they proved they had public liability insurance for them, and kept them suitably restrained.

The proposal was carried, with immediate effect.