Petition prompts discussion on dog beach ban

The debate over when dogs are allowed on Suffolk's beaches has been long running.

Since 2017, dogs have been banned from certain beaches between May and October every year.

But in Southwold, dogs are banned from the main stretches of beach for an extra month - starting on 1 April.

This has prompted a petition by Southwold resident Jenny Cook, who wants the town's restrictions to be the same length as the others.

East Suffolk Council bosses are expected to debate the issue later, but what do beachgoers and dogwalkers in Southwold feel about this?

Deborah Carrington is a dog owner and would like to see the rules relaxed.

"In fairness to Southwold I think there is a decent amount of beach available to dogs, but if they could extend the season that would be great."

And the 68-year-old does understand it can be difficult for people with children.

"I understand if you are a family with young children then loads of dogs on the beaches is not always for the best," she said.

"But dog owners are usually quite responsible. It makes sense to me to follow the same rules as the rest of East Suffolk."

Nessa and Martin Howen, 56 and 58 respectively, are on holiday in the area and said they understood why the ban was in place but would like to see it eased.

Mrs Howen said: "I do understand, not everyone is a responsible dog owner and they don't always pick up after themselves, which is why there is only certain beaches dogs can use."

Mr Howen added: "It would be nice if the dogs were allowed on the beaches all year round because you get to a point where everyone is on the designated beaches and then the other beaches are empty.

"So the extra month would do us really."

Julie Lucas, 57, meanwhile, said: "If I had young children and they were playing on the beach, I wouldn't want dogs on that beach.

"There's a lot of dogs that are very friendly but there's also other dogs that aren't, and there's kids that love dogs and there's kids that are really frightened of them.

"I think Southwold has a really good status quo."

Steven Janes, 63, is a dog owner himself but does not believe the ban should be shortened.

"Some people are not very responsible with what their dogs do on the beach and that spoils it for everybody," he told the BBC.

"My dog is very well behaved but I wouldn't completely trust him if people came too close.

"So, it's only fair that people can have their beach to themselves and we can go up the other end if we need to."

Councillor Sally Noble, portfolio holder for environment at East Suffolk Council, said the current ban was first discussed in 2017, and a number of residents actually wanted "an outright ban on dogs all year round".

"So this was a compromise really, to have the ban from 1 April, because the beach is very well used at Easter," she added.

"Unfortunately there are a lot of dog owners who are not responsible and while you can pick up dog mess off the beach it's very hard to stop them from urinating on it.

"We know some people are frustrated by this and we are listening, but we have no intention of a complete ban."

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