Westward Ho! Beach - Changes to the flying zones & dates of use

[craig.w1599968638]

Westward Wind kite Club Open Meeting

Sunday 29th August 2004.

 

The Waterfront Pub – Westward Ho! 6.30pm.

(Low tide is around 1.45pm so plenty of time to get a fly in first)

 

First off apologies for the short notice given for this meeting,

 

On Friday 24th a sign was erected at the walk way over to the beach at the Sandymere Car Park. This sign has changes to the flying dates and also to the flying zones which we as a club had absolutely no idea were going to change.

The Dates for the opening of the beach are now 1st June until 30th September & we have had the flying zones moved 200 meters further up the beach towards the estuary.

These changes have been made by the section of the council that deals with the Blue Flag issues on the beach and not by the Environmental & Leisure services committee which we as a club have been working with.

We contacted the Environmental & Leisure services committee about this issue & they had no idea that the Blue Flag committee had made these changes or erected any signs.

We are very disappointed in the actions of the council as we have been putting in lots of hard work to police the beach and inform visitors of the zones.

 

We also have a few other issues to discuss with the club members including the temporary committee, memberships, fund raising, restricting access & also The X-zone Autumn Games (15th – 17th October)

We hope to have Sean the Burrows Warden attend the meeting as well to give us his thoughts on how the summer season has gone.

 

Full details at www.westwardwind.co.uk

[john watkinson]

Must be galling to not know about his after all the good work you have done on our behalf. Sadly, unable to "vent my spleen" at this weekends meeting.

 

I regular travel the 90 miles to buggy at The Ho! and I am a member of the WWKC. Why not just restict the beach to "members only" and have a much bigger annual fee...these are selfish times. I also cant understand why Flexifoil had a full page advert in last Saturdays Independent for a sport that is gradually being banned, and we have a virtual ban for 33% of the year at Westward Ho!

Finally, I regularly drive up for a "first light" session....nobody on the beach...holidaymakers still in bed, do you expect me to keep to the new zone ???

I was up there last Friday when you and your 2 mates were there, we were the only ones on the beach.....did we keep to the new zone ???

 

John

[craig.w1599968638]

Must be galling to not know about his after all the good work you have done on our behalf. Sadly, unable to "vent my spleen" at this weekends meeting.

 

I regular travel the 90 miles to buggy at The Ho! and I am a member of the WWKC. Why not just restict the beach to "members only" and have a much bigger annual fee...these are selfish times. I also cant understand why Flexifoil had a full page advert in last Saturdays Independent for a sport that is gradually being banned, and we have a virtual ban for 33% of the year at Westward Ho!

Finally, I regularly drive up for a "first light" session....nobody on the beach...holidaymakers still in bed, do you expect me to keep to the new zone ???

I was up there last Friday when you and your 2 mates were there, we were the only ones on the beach.....did we keep to the new zone ???

 

John

 

The members only thing on the beach was something we were tryin' to avoid, but if the council feels that there needs to be even tighter restrictions on the beach then we might have to go with a permit system etc etc.....but lets hope it doesnt come to that just yet!

 

The signs went up on Friday morning & yesterday one of our club measured the 200 meters from the walk way, the new zone is around half way down the sandymere car park and on.

...and we do need to stick to this new zoning:o ....still not long and the rest of the beach is open again!

[william]

....These changes have been made by the section of the council that deals with the Blue Flag issues on the beach and not by the Environmental & Leisure services committee which we as a club have been working with. We contacted the Environmental & Leisure services committee about this issue & they had no idea that the Blue Flag committee had made these changes or erected any signs...

sorry to read this post, hope you are able to make progress on this.

raises an interesting point for both this and any other access issue: make sure you know who has jurisdiction over the site you want access to [not having a pop at you craig.w - you may very well find that there's an internal council conflict you can take advanatge of !! it appears to me that the Environmental & Leisure services committee may have misrepresented itself if they dont have the authority or the Blue Flag committee has exceeded its powers....]

[craig.w1599968638]

sorry to read this post, hope you are able to make progress on this.

raises an interesting point for both this and any other access issue: make sure you know who has jurisdiction over the site you want access to [not having a pop at you craig.w - you may very well find that there's an internal council conflict you can take advanatge of !! it appears to me that the Environmental & Leisure services committee may have misrepresented itself if they dont have the authority or the Blue Flag committee has exceeded its powers....]

We did have all the various departments of the council in the same place at the same time a couple of months back & in July there was a vote taken at a meeting of the Council on the trial zoning area which was voted in.

item no.26 - http://www.torridge.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4889

We are just sourcing copys of any meetings that have taken place since the Vote on the 7th July to find out whats happened.

 

There is already lots of problems within Torridge district council as reported by our local BBC news a few weeks back not sure what its all about though.

[pauljarvis]

What a shame. I am holidaying at Croyde from Friday and was going to have a few days away from the family at the Ho! Do I understand things correctly? I can buggy there, in the new zone until th eend of September when I can buggy the entire length of the beach. I am not a member of your club but of others and have insurance.

[craig.w1599968638]

What a shame. I am holidaying at Croyde from Friday and was going to have a few days away from the family at the Ho! Do I understand things correctly? I can buggy there, in the new zone until th eend of September when I can buggy the entire length of the beach. I am not a member of your club but of others and have insurance.

You dont need to be a member of the club to buggy, insurance is a must though.

Have look at the signage in the Sandymere Carpark when you visit it shows where you can fly or ask one of the other flyers once we get september out the way the whole beach will be open again.

[pauljarvis]

Thanks Craig. What are the best wheels for the beach? Big foots or Barrows?

[william]

.....& in July there was a vote taken at a meeting of the Council on the trial zoning area which was voted in.

item no.26 - http://www.torridge.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4889

We are just sourcing copys of any meetings that have taken place since the Vote on the 7th July to find out whats happened....

very strange - looks like that was the last meeting. increasingly looking like its an internal jurisdiction thing at the council: do you have a tame lawyer who could fire off a letter challenging what's happening in the light of the 7th July '04 meeting minutes ?

[abba]

Hi craig,

I was down at Westward Ho! a couple of weeks ago and i parked on Sandmere carpark. We parked at the end nearest the bird watchers. We just walked over the stones and unpacked the kites. The way your talking we are still able to do this. What was wrong with how the beach was set out before. You still got people with there tents getting in the way but they must not have read the signs. Do you think its fair half the beach for tents and half for kites?

Craig are you the admin for WWKC forum?

[craig.w1599968638]

Hi craig,

I was down at Westward Ho! a couple of weeks ago and i parked on Sandmere carpark. We parked at the end nearest the bird watchers. We just walked over the stones and unpacked the kites. The way your talking we are still able to do this. What was wrong with how the beach was set out before. You still got people with there tents getting in the way but they must not have read the signs. Do you think its fair half the beach for tents and half for kites?

Craig are you the admin for WWKC forum?

its not so much the change in the zones, we were under trial anyways....

there is still plenty of room for everyone to fly

 

its the fact that stuff has changed, the enviromental services comittee who we have been dealing with had no idea about this signage or zone change was going to happen, the burrows warden didnt know about the changes.

the zones and stuff were voted on at a meeting of the council so we were suprised to see the changes and even more suprised when 2 out of the 3 partys involved on the councils side didnt know about the changes.

...oh and to top that the sign says a "booklet" on kite buggys & traction kites is available for visiters from the burrows centre, we went and got one of these.....it was OUR original sign plan with the now old zones set out on the map!!!! ....

 

 

i am that admin from the site