Dogsey

A proposed ban on dogs on Combe Martin Beach, Devon has been abandoned after the parish council voted against a formal ban. Instead, the majority voted that dog owners should simply be requested not to take their dogs onto the beach between 1 May and 30 September. The decision has angered campaigners, who had wanted a permanent ban.

'Save Our Beach' campaigners have said that dog mess pollutes the already poor bathing water and discourages tourists to the village. They produced a survey earlier in the year, showing that more than 500 people in the village supported banning dogs from the whole beach from Easter to September. Combe Martin was in the news recently after South West Water pumped waste water from its three combined sewage overflows into the sea 42 times in 2011, after periods of heavy rain.

Campaigner Donna Green was reported as saying: “They [the council] have just made Combe Martin look stupid. There we are all over the national news about our bathing water and yet when we have a chance to do something to help it they do the opposite. They are not in it for the community.”

She went on to question how South West Water and the Environment Agency could be expected to clean up the water if dogs were “running all over it”, adding: “I would have preferred the partial ban to this. As it is only a request there can be no legal enforcement at all.”

Other members of the community voiced concerns that tourists would not want to visit. Terri Curtis, from Combe Martin's Tourist Information Centre, said: “All we have is our beach. The village will just become a dormitory for walkers now.”

If water quality is not improved by 2015, new Bathing Water Directive Standards will mean Combe Martin will have to display signs advising against bathing in the sea.