Letters to the editor

December 16 2016 - 4:30pm

Beach permits queries

Letters to the Editor – December 16
Letters to the Editor – December 16

Every morning around dawn a small group of people do their best to mind the beaches from Levy’s Point to Port Fairy. Who are they? They are your neighbours, ordinary members of our community, and they are there because they are concerned for our safety and the continuing degradation of our once-pristine beaches. A permit system has been developed in order to allow trainers to use the beaches for commercial training purposes. Every morning this group of community members observes various behaviours of some racing trainers and their riders which do not comply with the regulations of these permits. Riders must slow to walking pace when passing a pedestrian. This rule is currently, on the whole, not being observed by riders. Horses are trotting and cantering at arms length past recreational beach users on a regular basis. On Monday morning, for example, a woman on her morning walk at East Beach found herself amidst a throng of five horses, some skittishly dodging the vulnerable and seemingly bewildered figure on the sand. Who will be responsible for you if you as a recreational beach user or rider are injured by a runaway horse or a horse that has not been slowed to a walk or a horse that might shy in passing when that horse is at the beach on a commercial basis? No authority to date has answered this question, to my knowledge. Every morning horses illegally plunge the sand at a trot or canter alongside protected nesting zones unless a member of our community prevents them. These nesting sites are protected under Federal Environmental Law. They are well-signed and inform riders in some areas that horses must not pass the point of that sign; they must reduce their speed to a walk within 50m of nesting sites. Will the riders who currently flout these laws with seeming impunity change their ways under the licensing system? Warrnambool Racing Club will apparently be responsible in part for ensuring trainers comply with the regulations but has apparently declared that trainers will regulate themselves; to date there is little evidence of any form of self-regulation. In fact, the lack of respect, in the main, which has been demonstrated to date by most riders and trainers for any kind of regulation, has been nothing short of extraordinary. There is now more than sufficient documentation to illustrate without doubt the system of self-regulation, while there is the occasional exception, is largely failing. Who then will observe the horses on the beach on an ongoing basis to ensure their compliance with the regulations if the community members who are currently volunteering their time are not available? Perhaps Warrnambool Racing Club could employ a couple of trained independent ‘rangers’ to patrol the beaches and ensure compliance? After all it is their members who are benefiting from commercial access to our beaches. Will the trainers and riders who fail to comply with the conditions of the licensing system suffer a consequence? What is an appropriate consequence? I would suggest a hefty fine, the proceeds of which could perhaps then be invested in attempting to restore the beaches in the aftermath of commercial activity. Perhaps a persistent offender could also suffer the loss of their permit? The relinquished permit could be offered to a trainer demonstrating respect and regard for the conditions of the permit, for our safety and the environment.

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