Dog walkers will need to purchase permits to walk dogs on golf course
At last there has been some agreement between those walking their dogs on St Francis Bay Golf Club land and the golf club committee with the club agreeing to allow dog walkers on the course provided they obtain a permit. For a fee per dog (not stipulated in the letter) with a limit of two dogs and providing the dogs are kept on leashes and stay with a area within the course it seems a solution has been found. But possibly a better solution will be when the St Francis Common is finally cleared and nicely lawned and with walkways and gardens in place.which will certainly offer a larger area on which to allow their furry friends to exercise providing of course all walkers pick up after their dogs.
Content of the letter is published below.
NOTICE TO ALL DOG OWNERS
Dog owners wishing to walk their dogs on the Golf Club Course from 1st September 2017 will be subject to the following rules and regulations.
- Dog owners must be in possession of a valid Permit to walk their dogs on the part of the Course on the sea side (to the South) of St Francis Drive. These Permits are obtainable from the St Francis Bay Golf Club Office. A small fee is charged per Dog Permit.
- A MAXIMUM of TWO dogs may be walked at a time by the Dog Owner and these dogs must be on a leash at all times.
- The Dog Owner is to ensure that the flora and fauna present on the course is to be protected at all times.
- Certain time constraints apply to the dog walking and are clearly listed in the Permit Agreement.
- The Dog Owner agrees to ensure that any “poop” is “scooped”!
- The attention of all Dog Owners is drawn to the newly cleared space that the Kouga Municipality has prepared next to the Village Square Centre and the Bowling Club.
After years of appealing to dog-walkers it has come to this.
I don’t think that dog-walkers must put too much hope in the possibility of walking on the Common as the same conditions will apply – They will have to control their dogs and pick up the landmines.
The days are gone of people taking no responsibility for their dogs and how they impact on the community.
We must agree that not picking up after your dogs no matter where you walk is totally unacceptable and disrespectful and poop scooping must be enforced where ever dogs walk be it on the golf course, the common, nature reserve or the beach. May those who ignore this common courtesy be named and shamed.
This is from Hennie Jordaan: I promise that I will not walk my scotties on that neat and hallowed ground. If we assume that dogs wil crap at random on any surface convenient and available to do so, my friends at the Bay Club should not infer these expressions of canines as a serious comment on the status of their golf. Greetings and good wishes. Hennie Jordaan
Regrettably it will not work voluntarily either for the golf course or the village green and policing it is obviously impracticable and will rely mostly on players and ground staff and a large slice of luck to be on the spot when fido ‘downloads’. There is just not the 100% culture hereabouts, locals or visitors, to ‘scoop’ the poop, as a walk on the local beaches and coastal paths attests – all for the sake of carrying a few cheap Spar nappy-bags. If they knew some of the communicable diseases and parasites in dog poop would it make a difference ?. It’s probably the minority spoiling it for the majority. In UK, local authorities find increased compliance when they provide designated bins for ‘poop’ bags on beaches and other public spaces. Worth considering this SFB GC ?