P-06-1213 Ban leisure use of Seadoo/jet ski in Cymru. Except in strictly controlled designated areas, Correspondence – Pembrokeshire Council to Committee, 10.05.22

The UK government approach has been that the most effective method of managing PWC is through local byelaws. However, we all know that PWC move very fast, any dangerous / anti-social behaviour in most coastal locations is sporadic and fleeting and the ability to have an enforcement officer in place at the right time, with the equipment to gather court-admissible evidence, makes this method of control near-impossible other than within ports and harbours.

Control at the point of launch remains our only effective tool but this can only be achieved where landowners are agreeable, prepared, and able take action and there is no public highway leading onto the foreshore. In a county like Pembrokeshire with upwards of 50 launch points, mostly in rural places, with no control measures in place, trying to control access to PWC via this means would be prohibitively expensive and would limit access for the many hundreds of users of the coast who cause no issues.

The impact of PWC on marine and coastal wildlife is also a matter of concern, rafting and breeding seabirds, cetaceans and seals are all easily and regularly disturbed off the Pembrokeshire coast by the speed, noise, proximity and potential for direct collision with PWC.

The Pembrokeshire Water Safety Forum has been working on this issue and members are intending to hold a multi-agency PWC awareness day this summer. One of the challenges will be reaching our intended audiences who are often not local and arrive in small groups to disparate locations