Bruce Sinclair, Local Democracy Reporter
Senior councillors will consider a call to modernise seasonal dog restrictions on beaches, including replacing some outright bans with time limits.
A motion put to Pembrokeshire County Council on October 15 called for the county’s beach dog restrictions to be modernised.
From May 1 to September 30, dogs are completely banned from Tenby’s North Beach and Whitesands in St Davids.
Partial bans apply to parts of Lydstep, Newgale, Saundersfoot, Tenby Castle and South Beach, Amroth beach, Poppit Sands, Broad Haven North, and Dale.
Coppet Hall beach also has a voluntary dog restriction between 10am and 6pm.
Pembrokeshire has adopted a “warn and inform” approach, councillors previously heard: “Officers provide advice, guidance and warnings as a primary approach; for known or persistent offenders the authority retains the ability to utilise statutory measures such as community protection warnings or community protection notices.”
Rhys Jordan, councillor for St Florence and St Mary Out Liberty, put forward a motion stating: “Council believes that the current arrangements should be modernised to provide a clearer and more proportionate balance between responsible dog ownership, public enjoyment of our beaches and effective enforcement.”
Cllr Jordan previously said “blanket bans” on some county beaches were “overly punitive on dog owners”.
He is asking Pembrokeshire’s Cabinet to make four changes to the system.
His first proposal calls on the Cabinet to “bring forward proposals to replace total seasonal dog bans with time-limited restrictions between May 1 and September 30, restricting dogs from designated areas between 9am and 6pm, with access permitted outside those hours”.
He also asks the Cabinet to “consider replacing reliance on existing byelaws with an appropriate modern legal mechanism for managing and enforcing dog restrictions on beaches”.
On enforcement, he asks the Cabinet to “introduce a clear and proactive enforcement protocol, supported by appropriate signage and public information, where breaches are subject to proportionate enforcement action, including the appropriate use of Fixed Penalty Notices rather than reliance upon a general ‘warn and inform’ approach”.
The motion calls for the changes to take effect from May 1 next year.
At Pembrokeshire County Council’s October 15 meeting, members agreed Cllr Jordan’s motion would be considered at a future meeting of the council’s Cabinet.
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