Dog bans at Rock-a-Nore and the Stade withdrawn

The council has reversed its unpopular policy banning dogs from the Rock-a-Nore and Stade beaches during summer months. This week the council’s Cabinet gave unanimous approval to ending all dog exclusion on these beaches, a move welcomed by the Paws for Shores campaign group as well as dog owners in general. Nick Terdre reports.

At its meeting on Monday 4 November the Cabinet unanimously approved the officers’ recommendation to end the dog ban on Rock-a-Nore and Stade beaches between 1 April and 30 September which was introduced in 2023. Restrictions remain in place on the Pelham and Marina bathing beaches.

The decision was welcomed by Paws for Shores, a campaign group set up by Anne Pottle specifically to fight the ban. “This is a great result,” she told HOT, “and means everyone, dog or non dog owners, local or tourist, can enjoy Hastings and all it has to offer.

“For me it is about a community coming together to fight what we considered to be an unfair and unjust decision made by the previous council.”

After the ban was introduced, Pottle launched a petition against it which attracted an impressive 1,739 signatures, and was also supported by the Dogs’ Trust and Kennel Club. Although it was pronounced invalid by officers, the petition was used to gauge local views, according to the report to November’s Cabinet, and helped prompt a review. Prior to May’s elections, Green councillors had promised a review, and when, following the elections, the party took over the Cabinet in its entirety, the go-ahead was given for a public consultation.

Healthy return

Held during August, the consultation drew 2,850 responses, which, while equivalent to only 2.8% of the town’s 91,497 inhabitants, represented a healthy return for such an exercise. Of the respondents, 64% favoured removing the ban on both the eastern beaches while 28% voted to retain the status quo.

There was a clear distinction between dog owners, who made up 64% of respondents, and non owners: while 84% of the former preferred wanted the ban lifted, 65% of the latter wanted it to stay in place.

“I’m pleased that so many people responded to our consultation asking for feedback on the beach dog controls. Thank you to everyone who did take the time to do it,” said Cllr Glenn Haffenden, the lead for housing and community wellbeing. “We have agreed to remove the restrictions on Stade and Rock-a-Nore beaches as this was the most popular response to the consultation.”

“I would like to thank the council for keeping their election promise to review the ban and taking the consultation results into account when making their decision to remove the ban,” Pottle told HOT.

Previous consultation

The results of the previous consultation were treated differently by the council. This was a six-week exercise which was concluded in October 2022 as part of the run-up to putting in place a new dog control Public Space Protection Order, the previous one having expired in 2020. (Between 2020 and 2023, then, there were no dog controls in the borough, though the council kept mum about this.)

The consultation suggested that tighter dog controls were appropriate “because it was felt that the usage of the beach had changed and increased dramatically especially through the pandemic and that the beach should be protected for the use of it by families and visitors,” in the words of the report to the March 2023 Cabinet meeting.

Of the 835 who responded, 601 (72%) specifically opposed the proposed restrictions while only 74 (9%) approved them. The public view, however, was overruled by the  then Labour Cabinet, even though the report does not present any compelling reason for restrictions on Rock-a-Nore or the Stade beaches beyond suggesting that “the beach at Rock a Nore […] is a popular beach for families.”

The popularity of Rock-a-Nore beach was not discussed in the Cabinet report for this week’s meeting.

When the ban on these beaches came into effect, many dog owners seemed unaware of them. According to Paws for Shores’ Ailsa Easton, who attended this week’s Cabinet meeting, “When we started publicising our petition, many people I spoke to were completely unaware of the ban.

“I was very delighted with the decision, as are all dog owners, and glad to have been there on Monday,” she told HOT.

“My personal view is that dogs are our children, and the council should accept that.  But they are more interested in gaining the Blue Flag award for the town’s beaches, which require dog restrictions, than listening to us dog owners.”

It will be interesting to see if Cabinet bases future decisions on “the most popular response” to consultations, to quote Cllr Haffenden, as this does not appear to have been its usual custom in the past.

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