If you’ve been sneakily letting Fido frolic unleashed on beaches where dogs are banned, you’d better watch out this summer.
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Because Wollongong City Council is about to start cracking down on errant dog walkers – as well as bad beach-side parkers and littering fishermen – with a new $214,000 annual funding injection to its enforcement team.
According to a report to be considered at Monday’s council meeting, the extra funds will allow the council to employ a new animal control ranger and a “year round dogs on beaches team”.
Three new part time “foreshore rangers” will work across seven days all year, changing their shift start times, evidently to bamboozle those who think they can get away with letting dogs roam free.
The team’s main focus will be out-of-place pups, but they will also enforce other “foreshore matters” like illegal parking in beach car parks and fishermen’s litter.
According to staff, these new rangers “will ensure productivity year round [and enhance] the service to move towards the ever increasing community enforcement expectations”.
“It is important to note that the exercising aspect of owning a dog continues all year, not just the summer months. Therefore, it is important that [rangers’] presence is available all year, and the risk of being caught [is] present all year.”
The council has already installed signs showing if beaches are green (dogs allowed), orange (dogs allowed sometimes) or red (dogs banned), and will put up other new information signs by the end of the month.
In 2014, dogs on beaches was one of the council’s most controversial issues.
Changes to the dogs on beaches policy were proposed in July, with councillors aiming reach a compromise between residents who walked their dogs and those who did not agree with dogs having access to beaches.
Public marches and heated debate ensued and, during the exhibition process, the council received 2000 submissions and two petitions with 3000 signatures.