Consultation needed

If Gosford Council succeeds in its ill-considered proposal to ban dogs from the southern end of Umina Beach, in favour of a new exercise area at Ettalong, it will effectively alienate both the dog community in Umina and the fishing community in Ettalong.

Have either of these communities been consulted on this proposal?

I would like to know how the fisher people feel about the prospect of being invaded by unleashed dogs 24 hours a day!

I do not own a dog, but consider myself a "member" of the very responsible Umina dog community, deriving a great deal of pleasure from my early morning interactions with the dogs and their owners.

It both frustrates and saddens me to think of this community being decimated if dogs are to be banned here before 9am.

I fear the resulting disruption to the Ettalong fisher people with the arrival of the dogs and their owners will inevitably cause friction between the two groups as each one attempts to justify its very reasonable existing life style.

Fishing and dog exercising are surely mutually exclusive activities!

A Council will be to blame for this situation not the affected communities.

Our society has lost far too many of its small viable communities (eg rural football clubs) due to the prevailing philosophy of user pays, excessive profits and "bigger is better' as we become increasingly swallowed up by corporate interests.

As pointed out by your correspondents and the people at the meeting at Avoca on Sunday, people feel Council would be well advised to concentrate on its responsibilities to all beach users, as spelt out in the Animal Companions Act, instead of trying to duck those responsibilities by adopting the easier and cheaper option of penalising the responsible for the bad behaviour of the few

Bunty Oldmeadow, Woy Woy