HIP - Make Hastings Dog-friendy Now!

Dog beach ban beggars belief

By Kent Barker

The sun is low behind the pier, shimmering on the sandy beach with such intensity that it’s almost impossible to see the shore.  It makes ball throwing problematic.  Up it goes in a long ark.  Down it comes through the blinding light and skids invisibly away across the wet sand.  Myrtle doesn’t seem troubled by the phenomenon.  She canters after it like a race-horse approaching the last furlong at Aintree, catches the ball, employs the four-paw anchors and skids to a wet, sandy halt a meter or so further on. Yes, we’ve discovered the joy of low-tide Hastings.

            It’s a pretty well guarded secret.  For years I’d thought there was only an uncomfortable pebbly foreshore here.  Then a friend initiated us.  Now I have tide-table apps on both the phone and the pad, and we schedule our day round the low water. 

Talking about tide-tables, some years ago, when I was reading the news on a local radio station in the North East, we had to give the tide times at the end of the bulletin.  With no Internet in those days we consulted a little blue booklet.  One day a colleague discovered our BBC rivals were announcing high tide an hour later than us.  Reading the small print we realised we’d failed to account for British Summer Time.  But no one had noticed. Or if they had, hadn’t thought to mention it.

At this time of year the Hastings low-tide beach is sparsely populated by sea-anglers, lugworm diggers and that most discriminated against group – dog-owners.

In a few weeks Myrtle and her canine colleagues will be barred from the beach.  Until October.  It seems rather an extreme measure.  I appreciate that doggy deposits are unpleasant for others but I feel owners are increasingly responsible in cleaning up after their pooch and, anyway, most of the beach is self-flushing twice a day!

            It’s a bit like Alexandra Park.  I can just see the logic in insisting dogs are leashed throughout the southern section between 08.00 and 18.00 in summer.  They might possibly scare toddlers or interfere with children’s ball games. But in winter?  It’s ludicrous.  There’s no-one in the park after dark – except dog-walkers.

For heaven’s sake HBC, show some sense and amend the restrictions – or at very least lift them for a season and monitor the results. Make Hastings dog-friendly.  Now!

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