A woman “stalked” by a rookie enforcement officer wrongly demanding she put her dog on a lead has received a public apology from the council.

Peggy Riley, 58, was strolling along the beach in Whitstable with her golden retriever Louie off the leash when she started being followed by the over-zealous warden.

She says he pursued her for 10 minutes, telling her she was breaking the rules and relentlessly asking her for personal information - despite there being no restrictions on dogs in the area.

The senior university lecturer has since branded the officer’s response “out of proportion and unnecessarily confrontational”, adding: “It made me feel really uncomfortable, pursued and stalked.”

After being contacted by Kent Online, Canterbury City Council (CCC) revealed the warden is new to his role, and apologised to Ms Riley for the ordeal making her feel “unsafe”.

The Whitstable resident had unleashed Louie near the yacht club shortly after 10am on Thursday when the official, who was wearing a black uniform with a body-worn camera and a CCC lanyard, approached her.

“I thought he was going to ask me a question,” she recalled.

“He said I had to put my dog on the lead, but I said no, that’s in Tankerton.

“However, he kept following me and he wouldn't let it go.

“He kept pressing me for personal info, which I gave him reluctantly as I thought he was from the council.

“Then he told me to stop for two minutes and I said no.

“He kept phoning someone to say that I wouldn’t stop and he kept pursuing me along the beach.”

Whitstable Beach, which is owned by the Oyster Fishery Company, is dog-friendly and has no restrictions in place.

However, in nearby Tankerton people cannot walk dogs on the beach between May 1 and September 30. They must also be kept on a lead along the promenade.

Ms Riley says she feared the enforcement officer was a fraud, explaining that he only left her alone when she approached two male dog walkers.

“I kept going as I was so angry that he kept telling me to stop; he was so patronising and I thought he was hostile,” said Ms Riley, who lectures in creative writing at Canterbury Christ Church University.

“There were two men without dogs on the lead and I told them I couldn’t get away from him.

“Then when I spoke to the two men, he left me alone.

“It made me feel really uncomfortable, pursued and stalked.

“It was 10am in the morning and it's not a time you would expect to feel uncomfortable on a beach.

“I wasn’t setting fire to anything. It seemed out of proportion and unnecessarily confrontational.

CCC carried out an investigation into the incident, and confirmed the officer will be receiving further training.

A spokesman said: "We would like to publicly apologise to Ms Riley about what happened on Whitstable beach.

“Nobody should feel intimidated or unsafe when interacting with one of our officers and we are very sorry that this is how she felt.

"An investigation has been carried out and has shown that this was a new officer who was incorrectly enforcing part of the beach on which there are no restrictions on dogs.

"We are always willing to review cases and incidents to learn from them. In this instance, the officer will be receiving further training on this part of their work, which was new to them, to prevent a repeat of it happening again."

Recent figures show the number of dog walkers fined in the Canterbury district has dramatically increased since the council contracted enforcement out to National Enforcement Solutions (NES) last May.

Twenty fixed penalty notices were issued in 2022/23, compared with zero in 2021/22, one in 2020/21 and one in 2019/20.

NES receives 70% of money generated through fines, with CCC given the rest.