Council to vote on dog ban proposal at Point Cartwright
Dogs could be banned from a popular Sunshine Coast beach on weekends before a permanent ban in coming years under a proposal up for council debate.
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Dogs could be banned from accessing a popular Point Cartwright beach on weekends from this week, before a total ban is enforced in 2025, leaving dog owners barking mad.
Sunshine Coast Council is set to vote on a local law relating to dog access within Point Cartwright Reserve and La Balsa Park area at its next Ordinary Meeting on Thursday, December 14.
Currently, dogs can be off-leash near La Balsa Park and at the northern beach area, commonly known as Carties Beach between 4pm-8am and on-leash at all other times every day.
However, the proposed local law, which came about after council endorsed the Point Cartwright Reserve and La Balsa Park Master Plan in August, consists of a temporary arrangement allowing off-leash access between 4pm-8am and on-leash at all other times from Monday to Friday, with access prohibited on weekends.
The temporary arrangement is proposed to be in place until June 30, 2025, before a total ban is enforced from July 1, 2025.
Mountain Creek resident Nick Green, who was among more than 1700 people to lodge a submission on the local law making process, described the move as devastating.
“It’s obviously pretty devastating, there’s not a whole lot of off leash areas on the Sunny Coast, they keep taking away more and more dog off leash areas,” Mr Green said.
“It’s going to be pretty upsetting.”
Divisional councillor Joe Natoli said it is important to balance the needs of the community who use the area.
“The entire beach as well as the rocky foreshore has been accessible to off-leash and on-leash dogs seven days a week, now it could be brought back to Monday to Friday,” he said.
“The reason for that is that weekends are the busiest times.
“I’ve had a number of people tell me that they have stopped going to Point Cartwright because of the number of dogs and they feel uncomfortable in that space.”
Mr Natoli also hit out at claims that council has not listened to feedback of community members.
“For those people who have said that we’re not listening, we are listening,” he said.
“This issue is going to continue to be a problem for council, in that the number of beaches doesn’t grow, but the dog population continues to grow.”
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Originally published as Council to vote on dog ban proposal at Point Cartwright
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