One woman’s determination helps Mentone beach become 24-hour dog zone

PAMELA James has trudged through sand with her walking frame collecting signatures every day to make Mentone beach a 24-hour dog zone.

Pamela James fought and won to get a dog beach in Mentone. Pamela and her dog chloe on the beach. Picture: Valeriu Campan

MENTONE beach is now a 24-hour dog zone — thanks to the determination of hound lover Pamela James, who helped convince Kingston Council to approve a trial.

Ms James was fed up with having to adhere to restricted times to take her dog, Chloe, to the beach.

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So last year, Ms James trudged through the sand with her walking frame day after day and collected 135 signatures on a petition to make a stretch of Mentone beach a 24-hour dog off-leash area.

And Kingston Council approved a 12-month trial on a 450m stretch of beach from Charman Rd to the entrance opposite Plummer Rd.

Pamela James and Chloe at Mentone beach. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Ms James said prior to the trial the sign on the beach was confusing to residents.

“Me and a lot of other people would be there when we weren’t supposed to and risked getting fined — a lot of people did get fined,” Ms James said.

“I just trudged through the sand with my walker and Chloe and mainly asked people going down there with dogs to sign my petition and of course they were the perfect people.”

Ms James said people had been responsible, cleaning up after their dogs, and hoped the trial — introduced last September — would become permanent.

Kingston chief executive John Nevins said the dog beach had “proved very popular over summer.”

Now Ms James is lobbying for a disability access ramp to the beach because the existing one is too steep for wheelchairs and her walker.

The council said its draft Mentone Coastal Precinct Plan includes a new accessible ramp to the foreshore promenade and the plan will be considered by the council later this year.