Dog zones coming in 2020

At the request of the Executive Mayor Dudley Coetzee, the Overstrand Municipality, facilitated by Nature’s Valley Trust (NVT), will be conducting a 6-month pilot study in 2020 where beaches will be zoned in order to provide residents, companion animals and wildlife space to enjoy our sandy coastline responsibly.

The trial zones will be on beaches in Hermanus, Gansbaai and Kleinmond and each of these beaches will have a GREEN (off-leash), ORANGE (on-leash) and RED zone (no dogs).

The trial zones will be in effect after public commenting in January (details to follow).

It’s time for one last round to receive feedback and get comments before Overstrand Municipality is implementing trial dog zones on Kleinmond Main Beach, Grotto Beach in Hermanus and Pearly Beach near Gansbaai.

Each of these beaches will have a GREEN (off-leash), ORANGE (on-leash) and RED zone (no dogs).

It is true that not everyone likes dogs or wants to deal with dogs on a day out at the beach, especially when they have small children with them. Other than a fear of dogs there is also the possibility of an overly excited dog running or jumping on kids or peeing on sandcastles, which do not make for very happy children. Moreover, beach runners may prefer a beach without dogs as dogs with a high prey/chase drive may chase/attack a runner.

Overstrand residents have until 23 March 2020, to comment on the new proposed liquor trading hours in the Overstrand.

The two page document contains significant implications for liquor licence holders in terms of when people can buy and enjoy alcohol responsibly.

This means that licensed businesses like bars/clubs and other waterholes cannot sell liquor after midnight and that consumers cannot buy alcohol for off-consumption (ie to take home) on Sundays.

The by-law outlines recommendations for amendment to the following:

Water restrictions in the Greater Hermanus area revert back to Level 2 water restrictions as from 1 February 2020.

The announcement was made by Overstrand’s Executive Mayor, Alderman Dudley Coetzee, at a Council Meeting on Thursday, 22 January 2020.

“Over the past number of days Hermanus has been blessed with in excess of 85mm of rain which has raised the level of the De Bos dam to above 50%.

Water is still flowing strongly across the weir into the dam and we predict that the dam level will continue to rise for the next two or three days,” the Mayor said.