The City of Stirling has recently released the “revised” Scarborough Beach Urban Design Master Plan.
The plan may have some impacts on beach access for regular Scarborough/Brighton kiters through the creation of 'activity areas'. The Draft plan suggests that kiters may be restricted to the northern end of Scarborough beach. Whilst the plan does not mention bans or restrictions, it is important that kiters have input into the process to maintain existing access arrangements.
Public comments close on September 13th 2010. WAKSA intends to make a formal submission to the City of Stirling.
In order to develop our response to the plan, WAKSA has called for a meeting to discuss the message members who regularly kite at Scarborough want delivered to the Council.
The meeting will be held on Wednesday 25th August at the Scarboro Surf Life Saving Club, 1 The Esplanade, Scarborough commencing at 7.00pm.
WAKSA encourages all regular Floreat - Brighton/Scarborough kiters whether members or not to come and contribute to the discussion.
The Plan can be found here:
www.stirling.wa.gov.au/Home/Development/Projects/Scarborough+Beach+Urban+Design+Master+Plan.htm
Page 35 of volume one, where they talk about three distinct themed beaches, they list two challenges for the 'Family Beach' ('Brighton Beach', where most people currently finish the Floreat to Scarbs run):
1. Encouraging kite and wind surfers to use northern beach;
and
2. Wind mitigation
WTF?? ^^
Tell you what, if they managed to stop the wind, the kitesurfers and poleys might disappear anyway. 
no wonder they called it a " master" plan. --its long enough to propose it'll take over the world. - is there a dslyexic kitesurfers version?
I'm still in Eurofagland, and will not read the plan.....but the fact that it is long makes perfect sense.......remember that our officials are there to stay employed and make work for themselves.
Unfortunately I will be stuck at a colleague's retirement function.
Will lose big-time browny points bolting but will try to be there..
I'd just like to throw out there, to those attending and possibly voting, that (IMO) moving towards some small areas being self excluded (similar to Cott) may be a step forward for us all, and ensure greater peace all round, therefore less chance of actual blanket bans down the track.
Don't freak out and knee-jerk to the idea of restrictions if they are floated..
[}:)] zoom back out and try to keep an eye on how much space we currently have and how much will still be retained if some small areas are excluded.
i agree funky, obviously espescially the area right in front of the stadium thingy at scabs where there's usually athousand ppl. -who needs to be kiting in there? its such a small area and would slightly affect the citys - trigg DWer but would make alot of ppl happy and wouldn't be a huge sacrifice.
Will lose big-time browny points bolting but will try to be there..[}:)] zoom back out and try to keep an eye on how much space we currently have and how much will still be retained if some small areas are excluded.
Ha ha - glad you agree tman. Small loss - big long term gain most likely.
I wont be there either but as Ive said previously there is no (I havent found any) mention of “exclusion zones” – so keep this in mind and promotion of good self regulation is the best outcome for local kiters.
The area should also be highly promoted/talked about as an intermediate to advanced area and beginners should avoid this area.
Some other points of keep in mind:
-This document is a “proposal” for future works and what can be applied now or works now isn’t necessarily going to work with the plan at its completion.
-The development is set for a works programme of 10 years. Red tape and all the usual bollocks aren’t going to see this completed for some time, if at all.
The document/proposal aside I think there will inevitably be talk about the current situation and the period leading up to the development, so I will say again – self regulation is the key.
Particular attention or caution (in self regulation), especially in busier times, should be made from the first carpark/beach path at brighton, past the amphitheatre, to the last carpark/beach path at scarbs, bordering with Contacio. This is where you generally get flags, people swimming, beach patrol and so on. I haven’t seen any incidents and the local beach patrol seem to think we do ok - there is no need for a knee jerk reaction into talk of exclusion zones at this point.
^^^ Sagely advice above. Not sure if the advanced/intermediate set-up would be as effective but it has merit.
Yeh - as far as I know there is no gaurantee of exclusion zones. IMO I have felt they have been needed for a few yrs now and have said so. That's just my 2c and I'm not agitating for it, I just think it makes sense and probably won't be able to make the meeting.
Recent experiances have personally left me with a feeling self regulation is far less than satisfactory tho. Sad but true.
Also the fact that the council are on paper as being 'interested' in the wind/water activities is forboding and would lead you to think the potential is there for a far worse situation than exluding small areas. Who knows tho - the document is a hellova read - I nodded off before I got past the cover page!
I oppose giving any areas up voluntarily, and strongly back self regulation, if imminent restrictions are coming (eg exclusion zones) then you start the negotiations be it for surfing windsurfing or kitesurfing for that matter, once things are set they are very hard to reverse
dont loose sight that user conflict is what this all is aimed at trying to resolve and there are significant amounts of time during the year when the other users are a minority,
Familys swimmers sun bathers etc are only there in large numbers for a reasonably small part of the entire year eg weekends when its hot/sunny, not windy and generally pleasent conditions over the warmer months,
as soon as its windy and cool their numbers are reduced considerably. Over the winter months they are almost non existent except for surfers, kiters and windsurfers further When there is a significant wind in winter these numbers are reduced to allmost nil
why give up areas when there is so much time when they are hardly used by the other party's?? and are not even bothered to be patrolled by the authorities(SLSC)
what about those onshore days in winter when you need all the beach you can get to get out, why give it up for no reason when there are no significant numbers of other users in the water with no beach patrol
I'm not saying it makes it ok to buzz a person who does choose to swim, the same common sense rules should prevail,
Unfortunately some persons choose to vent their anger over peoples behaviour on a online forum to no avail, remaining anonymous when they could have dealt with the situation at the time and made some real attempt at self regulating a spot if they felt so strongly about it
Most of the guys at brighton know each other and have for some time, every one I know who kites there is well approachable, it seams the guys that make all the noise choose to remain anonymous acheiving very little about what they are preaching. If you want to make a difference make yourself known to the regular users and offenders of this beach
i think slaves right carl, your system sounds good in theory and nobody is disputing that the crew down there aren't nice blokes and very approachable, i think the problem is purely population growth at such a rapid rate that we need a solution on a wider scale than 'sort it out at the beach with the locals' mentality. don't blink cause before you know it u won't know half the kiters at your local.
Ive been windsurfing at Brighton for over 13 years and not a word about exclusion zones.
Then kites come along and now there's talk of moving us all on
Thanks for nothing guys.
Before you red thumb me imagine if it was the other way around,how would you feel
For those of you attending tonight's meeting, entry to the venue will be through the doors overlooking the grassed area in front (beach side) of the Scarboro SLSC.
7.00pm tonight, Scarboro SLSC, The Esplanade, Scarborough.
Sooo.. what happened?
Was this meeting run by the Mason's or sumpin?
What floated and what got booted?
Or was it all fur n feathers flying? 
