Dear Bruce Hobbs,

Your letter is unhelpful and unclear;

1. “To reintroduce another dog friendly summer use beach within the bay would be a retrograde step”. What does this mean? There is no dog friendly beach within Falmouth bay area. Tunnel beach had signs saying that dogs were not allowed. This I believe has been removed. Please clarify the status of tunnel beach if you know. As a law abiding dog owner I believed that a sign threatening a fine of that size was legal.

2.“A few or some” dog owners ie 750+ thus far have signed the petition in order to start a dialogue.

3.”Do any of the people calling for another beach know that there is one available for their use with their dogs? It might mean that the owners would have to walk further to exercise their pets but that might be a good thing." unhelpful and unclear as to which beach you mean.

4."As you may or may not know the criteria for gaining Blue Flag status are clearly set out and do not make any allowance for pets including dogs to be able to use the beach within the designated times that the blue flag is active. Hence the current ban." Untrue. The blue flag website states that: Access to the beach by dogs and other domestic animals must be strictly controlled (see link for full list). Also I can currently cross the beach in Falmouth with my herd of sheep and llama but not my pet dog.
http://www.blueflag.org/menu/criteria/beaches 

5."Overturning the current restrictions means that all the work currently being undertaken by the volunteers working with the beach managers would have to cease. The bay's beaches would not have any future recognition of meaningful quality." Unclear: Why? You don't explain why the volunteers would suddenly stop volunteering because dogs are allowed on the beach. I do not understand the link. Please clarify.

6. "The following current protection could well be withdrawn for the 2015 season: Lifeguards - This could be one of the services that Cornwall Council are discussing with a view to discontinuing as there would be no need to continue the facility. Beach cleaning. Water quality testing. Disabled access facilities. Dog access or disabled access - who would have my vote?

All of which we now have but no doubt would lose - unless those dog owners that want to change the current status quo are prepared to pay for all these associated costs themselves. Are they prepared to do that?”

I am sorry but you are scaremongering here. If Falmouth is likely to lose all these services for our beaches, why is this not front page news? I believe most of Falmouth would wholeheartedly want to preserve these services. I do not understand why dog owners should be subsidising these services from their own pocket suddenly? Either this is a real issue in which case let me stand beside you and support you in championing Falmouth’s Blue Flag beaches or you are using veiled threats to prevent the town from having a discussion about allowing dogs on part of one beach (Ironic as dogs are walked across Swanpool every day of the year, and yet there is no suggestion that that is a problem). We are asking to look at a ban which has been in place for a long time and see if part of a beach for part of the day might be available to allow dogs to access the sea safely in the summer months. We just want to discuss it.

Tanya Meschko,
(sent by email)