A petition signed by around 750 pet lovers was handed into Falmouth Town Council this week ahead of councillors debating the issue of whether dogs should be allowed onto a beach during summer months.

Niki Simons is behind the petition and the Facebook group, Castle Beach for Dogs Too, which has won support of dog owners who want to be able to take their pets onto the beach, or part of it, all year round.

In response to this, Louise Jones began a counter-campaign, Lets keep Castle Beach free from dogs over the summer months. Her petition on the campaigning website 38 Degrees, has attracted 156 signatures so far.

On Monday, Niki handed over her petition to town clerk, Mark Williams, and said: “I am really, really pleased with the response. We have highlighted the issue and got people talking about it.

“We don’t want all of Castle Beach, just an area of it, and it doesn’t even have to be Castle Beach, that’s just a suggestion.”

Mr Williams said that the town council’s beach management group is meeting on Friday and will discuss the issue and make a recommendation to council which would probably go before a future meeting of the finance and general purposes committee.

  • In a report in last week’s Packet concerning the proposed lifting of the dog ban on Castle Beach, a quote credited to Niki Simons stated that Councillor Steve Gray was against the petition, it has since been pointed out to us that the quote should have referred to Mr Gray’s wife.

We are happy to accept this as a misunderstanding and aplogise for any confusion caused.