THE City of Busselton councillors voted unanimously in favour of the officers recommendation regarding the management of dogs in public places.
Before councillors made their vote on Wednesday night, dog beach action group member Sally Wilkinson made a desperate plea to reconsider the implementation of seasonal restrictions.
A resolution to carve the city coastline into 28 sections of prohibited, seasonal and exercise areas for dogs was put to council in October 2014.
After six months of community consultation the city recommendation stated 13 beaches would become seasonal.
Seasonal means dogs are permitted to selected exercise areas except between 9am and 5pm during December 1 to February 28.
Ms Wilkinson told councillors that given the considerable amount of data opposing seasonal restrictions the group failed to see how the recommendation put forward was a representation of that.
She said 40 per cent of households in the community were dog owners with the majority beach users.
“Only four to five per cent of none dog owners completed the council questionnaire and we felt this suggested there wasn’t a massive interest from them on the issue.”
Ms Wilkinson said non-dog owners were looking for a safe environment when they went to the beach which is what both groups wanted.
“The city’s proposal premised on an assumption the beaches weren’t clean or safe and in order to make them so we need to remove dogs,” Ms Wilkinson said
“We believe this isn’t true.”
City of Busselton mayor Ian Stubbs said what council decided on would not keep everyone happy and whatever was put in place would need to be tweaked in 18 months.
After the meeting the dog group met outside council chambers and told the Mail they were devastated their hard work and professionalism over the past six months was not taken into consideration.
The group sad they were unsure what their next action would be.
