CARING council chiefs are looking into the creation of a dedicated dog-friendly room as part of the renovation of Carlisle’s Civic Centre.

The ground-breaking initiative is intended to ensure that vulnerable and homeless people seeking council help do not have to be parted from their canine companions.

The move has been proposed by deputy leader Gareth Ellis following a chance encounter with an old school colleague “distressed” that he was not allowed to bring his beloved Jack Russell Terrier inside the building with him.

Mr Ellis, whose own mother was in a homeless shelter, revealed that he could easily have found himself in a similar position.

He said: “When we were coming into the Civic Centre, there was a gentleman who was very distressed and who had just come out of the clinic. He had his dog with him.

“I recognised this person. I had gone to school with him. He was the same age as me and that could have been me. My mother was in a homeless shelter.

“Of course, there are really good reasons why we don’t allow pets into the customer service area because when they make a mess it’s not really fair that our staff have to clean it up.

“But we are the ones who set the policies; we are the ones that said that they can’t bring their pets in. When we are doing something new and re-developing the downstairs, we should take that opportunity to make it pet-friendly. Sometimes the pets are the only thing that they have.”

He added that he hoped the move to create the easy-to-clean pet friendly interview room would help “bring down boundaries”.

Darren Crossley, the council’s deputy chief executive, has been tasked with looking into incorporating a dedicated room as part of the refurbishment of the civic centre’s ground floor.

The landmark building was badly damaged during the 2015 floods and the ground floor of the building has been out of use ever since, with temporary buildings used to provide additional space.

Coun Elizabeth Mallinson revealed that her husband, council leader John Mallinson, stood outside with the man’s terrier while he went in to speak to staff.

She said: “We need to be sympathetic to people that present downstairs: you don’t want Rottweilers in there, but this was only a Jack Russell. It was a dear little thing: and it was all his life and love. Once we have got the ground floor sorted, we can get a room which is pet-friendly.

“And if people do present with these issues, then we can show we are a really caring council.”

Plans were discussed at a health and wellbeing panel considering homelessness prevention.