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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The ‘Central Beach’ doesn’t exist

There’s East and there’s West. The term ‘central beach’ was a ploy dreamed up in the eighties by the then District Council officials to get a blue flag, the other more popular area the East Beach was getting a lot of dodgy test results at the time.
I note in the Nairnshire that there is a call from Graham Vine for more signs to discourage dogs and their owners from this part of the West Beach now that the Council dog ban signs have had to go. How in these cash strapped times would the Highland Council pay for more signs (that would have no legal force at all)? Perhaps we could close the swimming pool and divert the money to signs?
Now it is emerged that dogs should have been allowed on the beach after all, this commentator is quite happy to admit to (along with many, many other people) to ignoring the signs and taking dogs for walks on the beach regardless of the shiny enamel warnings. If more signs of a different nature go up I will still continue to do so, taking precautions of course to make sure that children and swans nearby are neither scared, annoyed or mauled. For goodness sake let common sense prevail and if anyone is unable or unwilling to control their dog then let the police deal with it.
Finally dogs and tourism do mix, just go for a walk around the caravan site (30,000 visitors per year), where some weeks just about every other caravan will have at least one resident dog. The staycationers are taking their canine friends on holiday with them and Nairn suits them perfectly.