At last October’s Isle of Wight council (IWC) cabinet meeting, members made a commitment to look at restrictions for dogs on beaches during the summer.
During the consultation for updates to the restrictions (the Public Space Protection Orders), the cabinet member for community safety, Cllr Gary Peace, said multiple parties had asked whether there was any way to ease restrictions during the summer.
He said:
“I am sympathetic to this and I know other studies have been opened beaches to dogs throughout the year, so I am quite relaxed about also looking at possibly loosening up on the restrictions.”
Consultation through the winter?
Cllr Peace went on to suggest the IWC get in touch with town and parish councils about loosening the restrictions of dogs on beaches over the winter. He said,
“I suggest we run this now, and running through the winter period seems like the ideal time to do this so we can be in a fit and proper place come the new season in summertime.”
No updates
Ventnor Town Councillor, Ian Bond, has had many residents contact him about the issue of dogs on beaches and indeed, VTC made representations to the IWC’s consultation.
Cllr Bond got in touch with News OnTheWight at the beginning of March saying that that he’d been trying to seek updates from Cllr Peace about the plans to loosen the restrictions in the summer, but had not heard back .
Peace fails to respond
News OnTheWight wrote to Cllr Peace on 5th March to ask for an update, but he failed to respond. We’ve had this before on other issues affected either Ventnor or the Island.
We directed our question to the council last week, an Isle of Wight Council spokesperson said this morning,
“Our consultations with town and parish councils on the implementation and monitoring of our dog control orders has been set back because of Covid-19.
“Officers have now established regular meetings with local councils to review the roll out of the public spaces protection orders now they have been agreed. I would advise that dog controls on beaches have not been amended from the previous arrangements.”
Bond: Very disappointing
Cllr Bond told News OnTheWight,
“It is very disappointing that Cllr Peace was happy to take the credit, and publicity, for making the commitment in the first place, but has apparently failed completely to carry through on his promise.”
Article update
11.30am 29th Mar 2021 – Statement from IWC added
Image: Kojirou Sasaki under CC BY 2.0
