Dog restrictions are set to be lifted from two Hastings beaches next summer.
Yesterday, Hastings Borough Council’s cabinet agreed to make changes to the town’s dog control Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), following a public consultation held in September.
Under the current PSPO, Hastings is covered by several dog exclusion zones, which can see pet owners fined for bringing their canine companions on to most of the town’s beaches between April 1 and September 30 each year.
Last year, councillors agreed to expand these zones, adding both The Stade Beach and Rock-a-Nore Beach to the previous prohibitions.
The consultation posed three potential options: to keep the restrictions as they had been last summer; to remove the restrictions from both The Stade Beach and Rock-a-Nore Beach; or to only remove the restrictions from The Stade Beach.
In all, the council received 2,850 responses as part of the consultation. Of these, 1,813 (64 per cent) were in favour of removing the restrictions from both The Stade Beach and Rock-a-Nore Beach. A report notes how the majority of these respondents (1,534) said they were dog owners.
The other options received less support, with 802 people (671 of whom were not dog owners) in favour of keeping the previous restrictions and just 235 in favour of only removing the restrictions from The Stade Beach.
In light of the consultation response, cabinet members had been recommended to agree to remove the restrictions from both The Stade Beach and Rock-a-Nore Beach in time for next summer. This was agreed by cabinet members.
Cllr Glenn Haffenden, the council’s deputy leader and portfolio holder for housing and community wellbeing, said: “I think personally that there should be a fair bit for everybody.
“The way that I see it … you will have part of the beach in the Old Town that is able for people to have their dogs … and then you are going to have a huge stretch in the middle where it is completely dog free.
“So if, like me, you don’t have a dog and you want to be on a beach where there isn’t going to be a dog there are plenty of places to go for that, but if you are like a lot of the people who did fill out this consultation there would be a place to go.”
