Dogs are allowed off the leash on large parts of Dunedin's Chisholm Links golf course, the Dunedin City Council says.
The council yesterday provided answers to complex issues around public access to the course after a submission on the council's dog bylaws from Chisholm Links Golf Club calling for members of the public to be banned from the course prompted a backlash from non-golfers who use it.
Since the story first ran in the Otago Daily Times this week there has been disagreement over whether dogs have to be on a leash when on the course, most of which is on Ocean Beach Domain.
The council's in-house legal counsel Karilyn Canton yesterday provided answers to this and other questions around public access to the course.
Ms Canton said the council had granted a lease to the club on the basis the clubhouse and associated buildings were for the sole use of the club but all other areas were available to the public.
Dogs are allowed off the leash on the parts of the course on Ocean Beach Domain - which includes most of the course - as long as they are under their owner's control.
On parts of the course that are not part of Ocean Beach Domain, dogs have to be on a leash.
The boundaries of the domain are determined in the Ocean Beach Public Domain (Repeal and Vesting) Act 1992 and include Marlow Park, Kettle Park and Hancock Park.
Under a council bylaw, dogs are allowed off the lead in the domain, with some exceptions, which includes dogs being prohibited from all playgrounds, cemeteries and the designated playing area of all marked sportsgrounds.
The council was yet to determine whether there was a legal road running through the course, which was a "complex issue'' that it was investigating further, she said.
"This question was put in front of the ... High Court in the 1950s, but the court did not end up making a decision on the question.''
However, this question was "moot'' as the public already has the right to walk or cycle through the golf course, with or without dogs.
