Dog beach ban supported to secure Blue Flag status
A PROPOSAL for dogs to be banned on a section of Bettystown beach tipped for Blue Flag status received unanimous support at a recent Laytown/Bettystown Municipal District meeting.
The restriction is required in order to apply for the international environmental award made to beaches and marinas throughout the world that demonstrate good environmental standards and have good sanitary and safety facilities.
If Blue Flag status is awarded to Bettystown, dog lovers will be restricted from walking their pets on Saturdays and Sundays in June from 11am - 7pm when the bathing season commences and for the full months of July and August between 11am - 7pm and weekends on Saturdays and Sundays in September until the 15th of the month.
The Blue Flag area will be a section of beach to the left of Seaview Terrace heading towards Mornington and will stretch as far as the lifeguard hut.
Meath Co Co Environmental Awareness Officer Bernadine Carry explained that there was a number of stricter options available to adopt in the restriction of dogs but that this one was the most implementable for Bettystown.
“This isn't a bye-law so we are not going to be handing out beach bye-law fines to anybody who doesn’t engage with it,” said Carry.
“We will be doing a publicity campaign and implementing clear signage to say you are now entering a Blue Flag area, dogs not allowed,” she added.
“Beach wardens will be on duty throughout the bathing season where this restriction applies and lifeguards will give out the information where it’s safe to do so.”
Fianna Fail Cllr Tom Behan welcomed the proposal but had concerns about enforcing the rules.
“Everything on paper looks great but I just would have doubts about the ability of keeping people with dogs away from that area,” said Cllr Behan.
“Will we be giving beach wardens a bigger presence on the beach?” he asked. “We have been arguing for a long time that there is a need for a full time beach manager.
“I feel for this to be successful we need to have a very strong presence there.
“It will be easy enough for us to reach our constituents who are local but everyone knows we do get a lot of tourism in the area on the summer days, how are we going to reach them and make them aware of what we are trying to do?”
Fine Gael Cllr Sharon Tolan echoed Behan’s call for enforcement.
“Everyone knows that I'm a dog off-leash lover but I think this is a very reasonable compromise,” said Tolan.
“The issue will be enforcement, ensuring that our beach wardens are well equipped and well trained on how to approach and how to deal this issue because some of the less responsible dog owners out there will not be the best type of people to be approaching either,” she added.
“The responsible dog owners I don't think will have an issue with this.”
Cathaoirleach of Laytown/Bettystown Municipal District and Fianna Fail Cllr Stephen McKee said it was a “reasonable” proposal.
“I had a motion passed not too long ago for bye-laws to be fully enforced on the control of dogs because it has been an issue on beaches and I fully support restrictions on dogs on the beach. You have to have a beach that is accommodating for everybody.”