Councillors bark and growl at off-leash 'clean up'

THE dogs might have stopped barking over the lack of off-leash opportunities on Bass Coast’s beaches, especially after the pouches’ pal, Cr Ron Bauer, successfully moved his dog-friendly Notice of Motion last December.

But there were still a few growls, grumbles, and snaps from the councillors when the dogs off-leash start date and old signs were discussed at the council meeting on Wednesday, February 16.

Noted dog lover and owner of ‘Invee’, Cr Rochelle Halstead, took umbrage at remarks made by her colleague Cr Leticia Laing during the debate when Cr Laing explained why she would not be voting for what was effectively a procedural motion.

“Thank you, Mr Mayor. In principle, I will not be supporting this motion. At the time I thought Cr Bauer’s motion was poorly drafted and undertaken in a rush, and it's required Council officer intervention to come in and clean it up,” Cr Laing alleged in a targeted attack.

“The other concern is that it was undertaken without the proper consultation that we’d…”

But it was too much for Cr Halstead who called a ‘Point of Order’ about the remarks.

“Cr Bauer is entitled to move a Notice of Motion,” said Cr Halstead.

“But Cr Laing is insinuating that Cr Bauer has caused the officers to run around in the background and clean up the mess. I don’t think that does any…”

It was at this stage that the Mayor, Cr Michael Whelan jumped in saying he would accept a point of order about the language used by Cr Laing but not a debate.

Cr Laing did withdraw her remarks about “cleaning up Cr Bauer’s mess” but still made her point and ultimately voted against a motion that was simply “cleaning up” what all councillors and senior offices might have noticed about Cr Bauer’s December motion.

It was something of a non-sequitur, in that dogs were allowed off-leash on designated beaches from February 1 to December 10 each year, but must be back on-leash from December 1, which doesn’t make sense.

The “clean-up motion” Cr Laing wasn’t happy with simply revised the earlier motion to “require from 1 December to 31 January dogs must be on a leash on the dog off leash areas from 10am – 6pm.”

It was the dogs and their owners who should have been growling. They’d been dudded 10 days off-leash.

Cr Halstead also probed the shire’s administration about the start date for the new off-leash dates given council had voted for the start to be February 1, 2022 but the signs at the beaches had not been changed to reflect this.

“Will dog owners be doing the wrong thing if they let their dogs off-leash now?” Cr Halstead asked.

The shire’s Manager Resilient Communities Jodi Kennedy said technically dog owners were in breach, while the signs remained, but that local laws officers were showing leniency and would not be enforcing the new dates until the new signs went up in the next few weeks.

"We haven't got a problem. The beaches can be very busy during that time anyway.

“We’d be confident about the shire doing the right thing,” said a dog owner, walking her happy pup, on-leash, at Cowes West beach later in the day last Wednesday.