Candidate suggests land near Lady Bay beach as an area to exercise racehorses

“The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that it would be a brilliant solution for the contentious ‘horses on the beach’ problem,” he said.

“The area is a considerable size, easily big enough to hold and conceal a sand-gallop track, spectator facilities, parking for trucks and floats and all within a short walk of the water. A bit of creative bulldozer work will make exercise dunes and the spoil from any dredge in the bay could also be dumped over the space.”

Horses are banned on the beach from December 1 and Levys Beach sand dunes used to condition horses have been shut to trainers over concerns activities were damaging indigenous cultural heritage. 

Mr Ziegeler suggested a pathway could be built from the area directly to the beach to allow trainers to swim horses in Lady Bay.

He said some people, who were worried about the flora and fauna in the area, may object to the idea “but an accurate inventory of the plant-life there would enumerate a range of introduced items, weeds and opportunistic plants”.

“Creative preparation would leave vegetated islands, dunes and sand-roll areas,” he said.

“The whole area would become a used and valuable asset. I seriously believe that this is a legitimate win-win solution for us all; horses and the community. We keep and foster their training access, we create a much better, more spectator-friendly space to capitalise on the activity, and remove the problem aspect from the beach.”

He said trainers would be issued with paid permits and proceeds could be used to maintain the space.

“These permits would be issued on the condition that trainers should clean up horse manure and dump it in a specially provided bin which could also be the repository for troublesome seaweed,” he said.

He said manure could be left where members of the public could collect it for their gardens. His idea is not about electioneering and he hoped it could be investigated even if he is not elected to council.