Horse training on Warrnambool beaches to resume

A LOBBY group against commercial horse training on Victoria’s south-west beaches says the Warrnambool City council is exposing itself to risk by supporting a proposal to allow the practice to resume on the Lady Bay and Levy’s beaches.

The horse racing industry has a long association with Warrnambool’s beaches, but commercial horse training was halted at Levy’s in 2016 pending the outcome of the Belfast Coastal Reserve Management Plan review and consultation process.

The state government released the final plan in August, which the Belfast Coastal Reserve Action Group (BCRAG) criticised as ignoring the 60 per cent of respondents that opposed commercial horse training in the reserve.

Following the release of the plan, the Warrnambool Racing Club (WRC) wrote to the council seeking approval to resume training at Levy’s.

At their meeting earlier this month, the council resolved that it would only provide approval if the funding contribution to a new car park for horse training at Lady Bay was increased to $400,000.

Horse training numbers on the beach will be reduced from 96 to 50 but the overall daily cap (swimming and/or running) will be retained at 116 horses.

BCRAG spokesperson Bill Yates said the WRC already had effective exclusive use of dozens of hectares of Crown land for facilities in central Warrnambool, and received generous amounts of taxpayers’ money year on year for upgrades including horse wading pools and sand tracks.

“Allowing the training of flighty race horses in public beach areas is an accident waiting to happen.

“Harkening back to ‘watching horses on the beach while growing up’ is not a reason for compromising public safety and amenity or degrading the environment.

It would be more productive for councillors to examine the published WorkSafe requirements for horse training and track work. Compliance of these requirements will be almost impossible in the Levy’s Beach area.

“Any ’incident’ will leave the council open to a damages payout that will make $400,000 for a car park look like small change.”