Pembroke slipway closed due to jet-ski incident
Wednesday 2nd September 2009, 2:30PM BST.
THE closure of a popular beach slipway to prevent jet-skiers using the bay was welcomed by beachgoers yesterday.
It is believed that an earlier incident involving a jet-skier on the slipway at Pembroke prompted the Environment Department to fence it off.
Signs have now been put up stating that it is shut until further notice to ensure public safety.
Regular beach user Ann Cluett, 60, said the slipway should have been closed sooner because irresponsible use by some jet-skiers was putting the lives of children at risk.
‘They should have done it years ago. They [the vehicles] come down the beach way too fast. I’m surprised a kiddie hasn’t been hurt.’
Mrs Cluett said she had no objections to the jet-skiers using the beach, but they should abide by the rules.
‘They should come down, drop off the jet-ski and then take the vehicle back up the beach.’
Windsurfer Pip Orchard, 18, (pictured) said the slip closure was annoying.
‘I use it a lot. There are few beaches that are safe for windsurfing. ‘As long as the jet-skiers are not physically hurting anyone or getting in the way, then it [the slipway] should not be an issue,’ he said.
Guernsey Jet-Ski Association president Jason Smith said members did not use the slipway because of safety concerns.
‘The problem is that people sunbathe [on the slipway] and by going up and down with jeeps, people can get upset.
‘Even though we could use it, we don’t because of the safety aspect.’
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The solution to this is fairly simple.
There is a jet ski group/body here. Only jet skis with a membership number are allowed to use the beaches or harbour slips. Any incident with a jet ski is reported to the jet ski body and their membership is revoked. They then lose the right to use the beach.
As mentioned elsewhere and alluded to in the piece this whole idea of, effectively Collective Punishment by closing the whole slip is churlish and something that we are starting to see far too often.
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Neil;
Are you saying that if they are a member then it’s alright to use the beaches at will,
Blow the rest of us that use the beach to go beaching.
‘What you suggest is a reminder to all who want to use the common land of L’ancresse.; but because of a monopoly of Golfers we are restricted.
It’s about time that such individual sports were tethered, ‘
The people have the right to use the beaches with their children and those others can find other places, not popular beaches.
I hope the authorities do something useful for change and ban these so-called sports- on our beaches,
I know nit is a sport, but be fair small children are at times in the water; must we wait til a serious accident occurs before action is taken?
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Now we are closing Pembroke beach to watersports users apart from the swimmers? First Vazon, now Pembroke? Whats going to be next, shut all the beaches to anything apart from swimmers? Shall we bring in the horse riders that use the beach, that could be dangerous if you get in the way. Or perhaps the sand racers, should ban that as that could be dangerous too!
Come on people, lets use some common sense here, shutting a beach does not solve the problem. Punish the jet skier, but not everyone!
Or are we going to become an island where we are not allowed to do anything apart from work and sit at home in front of the TV as anything else could be seen as dangerous??
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@Neil Inder
Sounds fair.
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Eric
What I am saying is that there has to be recognition that sea use is expanding, the sea is not the preserve of beach goers and, where there is an issue, the simplistic threat of collectively punishing all users of a type of sport is unacceptable. Strangely there are a number of examples threats of late, all around sea use.
Fishing off the Lighthouse
A threat from the harbour authorities to close the pier for 6 months because of a few users misbehaving
Fishing on t’other side of Harbour
A caretaker ( Mustway Bannar) suggested of closure of access.
L’Ancresse slip
A landrover and a quad bike misuse the access. Home, Environment and Parish close the whole slip.
Market Barriers (3 years ago)
Someone who can’t control their child climbs up planters. Health and Safety ‘assess’ and issue and whole aspect is ruined by barriers for over 18 months.
I don’t like implied threats by government agencies who use the catchall of “Health and Safety” to limit our access to our seas.
The appropriate way would be for an agency to use its powers on the individual. Be that via a warning, ticket or court action.
To close the whole of the slip at L’ancresse because of the actions of one or two members of public is, I hope you agree, a bit like my mum hiding all of our toys because we didn’t tidy up. OK in a domestic situation but when government starts acting like ‘mummy’?
Neil
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Oh dear Neil; did your mummy really do that
ah that explains your Rather full but selfish letter.
Guernsey is a holiday haven, in spite of many cases like yours who think the world is your oyster.
Well it isn’t, if you want to use your sport fine by me, I’m all for it.
BUT FIND A BEACH THAT’S little used
I suspect that those young ones wish to show-off to their girls friends and sundry, I did the same on Bikes; that is M bikes not like you seem to see three wheelers.
Just try to understand the fears of people, even with out the child involvement;
those jet skiers make a noise; people go to the Beach for peace and quiet, not for the raucous screech of Jets skies.
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Eric, I don’t own a kayak, a quad, a jet ski nor a landrover. You have missed the point.
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How can I have missed the point (which is the usual term ) used by letter posters.
I don’t give a monkeys whatever ; beaches are and has always been for bathing, sun-bathing and allowing the Kids for a short spell have their own way.
Elderly people love to just sit and maybe, when affordable a cup of tea.
Why should all these recent sports take command.
I say people should rise in anger and stop it once and for all.
There are many beaches quite unsuitable for the things I mentioned, so why not use those.
No! as I mentioned it’s a case of showing off. they want to use the gadgets or whatever then find beaches hardly used.
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Yes Eric and the beaches that are hardly used are inaccessible, again its the minority spoiling it for the majority of careful users.
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Eric, I have to say i completely disagree with you. You have been very narrow minded about this whole topic. Of course people need to be responsible and that is why neil has suggested creating a group of enthusiasts which can be policed. Times change, as do hobbies and past times. Who says that both your idea of beaching and new sports can’t both live in harmony together?
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Beach users should realise (or perhaps be more informed) that slipways are used for access to the sea and shore They are not there for the convenience of sunbathers. For example, Portlet, where beach users regularly set up camp at the bottom of the slip when fishermen want to get on and off the beach and are sometimes most indignant at having to move.
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Ben
I would agree with you if it were so;but to mind comes an old saying.
Give them a thumb and they’ll take the whole arm.
Give an inch they’ll take a yard.
If it was such as they could be shared it would be fine.
But do you honestly think people have complained just for fun?
No of course not; they have become a menace, and it needs to be ‘nipped in the bud’
I read that some say go to Cobo not many go there, so why don’t you all go there.
It’s because you all think you have the right to do as you wish, well so do those who use the beach as a beach.
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Personally, I’m bloomin’ annoyed. I couldn’t give a monkeys why the slipway is closed, I’m just very cross that it is. I have crab pots in Pembroke and have been launching my boat from that slipway for 5 years, at least twice a week. The size of my boat and the nature of the tides around the Northern point mean that I cannot reach Pembroke safely, by launching from say Bordeaux, unless in very calm conditions. This would also cost me dearly in extra fuel and time.
I have sympathy for beach goers, but also beleive that many of the sun-worshippers miss the point that the slipway is there to facility to movement of vehicles and vessels on to the beach, not simply to make it easier to carry the windbreak on to the sand. Pembroke is a working beach, and I and many others do work it. If complaints are received, the police should deal with them on a case-by-case basis, with those lodging the complaints being able to give vehicle reg. numbers and description/salient details etc. To close the slipway is a massively disproportionate response and quite incorrect. We do not close the coast road in response to a speeding motorbike; the offender is identified and punished – the same should apply to the slipway and any offenders, be the jet-skiers or kite flyers.
Whilst on the subject, I shall be launching my boat from Pembroke in the next few days, and I shall be moving the barriers !
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Well said David at last someone is talking sense unlike the very selfish Eric.
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Reading through these posts it seems clear to me that as the population grows, so there become more beach users and with it the number of conflicts will inevitable rise. We will always have our own opinions as to what the beaches should be used for and these will likely differ substantially from person to person. What is pretty clear from reading above is that the careless, dangerous or inconsiderate behavior of the few is unacceptable to the vast majority and it is these individuals who should be dealt with. If people abided by the rules and where they don’t exist exercised a degree of common sense the number of incidents might be reduced and all types of beach goers could enjoy the beach for their own purposes. Of course this is easy to say though in practice will not be observed but surely banning certain types of activities does not in any way address the behavior of those few but certainly upsets considerable numbers of others in the process.
I’m not particularly keen on the noise that jet skiers make but I wouldn’t want to seek to ban them. There are already laws in place restricting their use, whether or not people abide by these laws is a totally separate matter. It is obvious that you are not acting responsibly by speeding on the beach on a quad bike or by using fast motorized vehicles around swimmers or by swimming into the middle of a group of surfers or by blocking the slipway by sunbathing on it, parking a car on it or anything else. Come on can’t we simply exercise some responsibility for our own actions without having to start impacting on large numbers of people. The problem is not the activities it is usually the individuals and what is harder than a simple ban is how you deal with these people.
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This effectively bans horses from exercising on the beach and swimming there. They are already restricted to after 7pm which is getting hard to do as the nights are drawing in. I know they can use the each before 10am but that is not possible for anyone in employment unless a shift worker
Who owns the beach???? Surely they all belong to the people of Guernsey so restricting access should not be allowed
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Yes of course it does affect people like David, and I’m sure there are means of getting his boat to the water,
The L’ancresse end isn’t so difficult either.
As for John I wouldn’t expect anything else than your snide remarks,
I wonder how you would re-act if you were in the place of mothers with small children. constantly on the watch when these *Things* roar past.
It’s no use saying they are regulated, so are motorists, and they still speed, so what makes you think these Mechanised monsters will obey any regulation.
You live in a dream world John; give a thought to the majority; after all summer is short enough.
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I appreciate your thoughts and opinion Eric; however would be delighted to hear of these ‘means’ of getting my boat to the water.
In the absence of reliable sky-hooks, it would indeed by only via the L’Ancresse slipway that it would be possible. To examine this option, we need to give consideration as to why there are yellow bouys on the far LHD side of Pembroke….these are to clearly demark the entry and exit points for vessels in the bay. I would therefore have to drive said 4 x 4 and boat/trailer the entire length of the beach, through said masing crowds merely to comply with the regulations. Hardly a triumph for practicality and safety against the current approach from the Northern slip.
And as for the L’ancresse end not being ‘so difficult’. I would be delighted to offer anybody brave enough the option of attempting to reverse a double jointed trailer and vehicle through the hairpin at the approach and the 90 degree turn at the top of the slip (which incidentaly has neither the length or width neccessary for even a modest 12ft boat).
All in all, I reiterate this is poorly conceived short-term knee-jerk ‘solution’ to a problem that should have been dealt with by the police force using exising powers. Quite frankly I see absolutely no need for either the Environment Department or the Douzaine to have got involved.
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This all makes me laugh,
Number 1: Who lets kids play at a bottom of a busy slipway when we all know for years that vehicle’s have been taking stuff down and dropping it off.
Number 2: the Jet Skis dont make that much noise once your out of the bay the only time you are likely to hear them is when A, you are starting them up. and B when it may be a northly wind.
and finally the day after it was mentioned to people via the Guernsey Press, There was a paragraph asking for people who had kayaks, canoes etc… to help with the graniteman triathlon that has happened to day(sunday). But the thing i ask is how do i get my kayak down if the slipway is bloked off!!!!!
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Why shut it people have bin using jet skis on that beach for over 15 years so why spoil it for all slipway users WHY :@
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WHY said ryan and charlie .b
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David,
You would also have to pass a ‘No Entry’ sign if my memory serves me correctly! If you do attempt entry at L’Ancresse end please let us all know it would a treat to watch!!!!
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And of course, what exactly were the slipways put there for? Like David I. says – it wasn’t to faciliate the moving of windbreaks or a “sand-free suntan”. The beaches aren’t the sole preserve of sun worshippers (not that they have been doing much of a worshipping job this year….) or families with children who can’t be kept under control, but of people who enjoy watersports and (believe it or not) people who work on the sea.
I saw someone speeding up the street outside my house. I therefore want the Douzaine to immediately close my road to ALL traffic. I have young children who like to play in the road. Why should they have to avoid cars in this road? Roads aren’t really for cars any. They are just a handy flat space between houses for people to sunbathe on, or for my children to play on. Douzaine, are you listening? Will you close the road?
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@ Belinda
I’m sure you are a nice person really–
However your postings leans toward nonsense
However to each his own, and you may be right, yet the responsibility for these motorists are for the police to affect control.
All that is asked that there is more supervision on these playground beaches.
David Ingrouille, has been affected, yet he has with the calmness of an adult answered and given his views; Because of his work [on the sea] he should get a permit, But at least he was calm cool and collected. well done David.
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Other than David, isn’t it quite easy to get a surf board/kayak through the smaller entrance to the other side of Pembroke?
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Eric! You’re priceless! Your posts are beacons of relevance in the jungle of drivel! You shed more light on the hot topics in Guernsey life than any other poster! My heartfelt thanks!
As someone with freedom2choose, those kids better watch out. NOW WATCH MY REVS
Seriously though, Belinda is right again here. It’s a road isn’t it? Heavy metal things with engines use it, hence its design.
if parents want to let their kids play on a road, they have every right to, but it’s exercising the right to be stupid.
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I’ve got a 14ft sailing dinghy and I used that slip to take my boat down to the water, so I completely agree with David’s comments. Sure, my dinghy is lighter than David’s boat and I could probably manhandle it down the slip at the other end, but it’s still a significant inconvenience and why should I have to?
It’s simple really, if someone is driving irresponsibly, call the police. It’s what they’re there for. Blocking this slip achieves nothing but inconveniencing countless law-abiding Guerns. The reckless Jetskier will simply drive down to another beach and scare small children down there instead. What will we do then? Close ALL the beaches?!
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Is the sea not big enough for everybody?
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wHEN I WAS YOUNG I WAS TAUGHT TO WATCH OUT VEHICLES,REMEMBER THE GREEN CROSS CODE.IF VEHICLES ARE BANNED SO SHOULD THAT UNPREDICTABLE BEAST CALLED THE HORSE.I ALWAYS THOUGHT THE BEACH WAS FOR EVERYONE TO ENJOY,NOT JUST FOR A BUNCH OF KILLJOYS WISE UP THE LOT OF YOU.
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