Easter 2006 saw Fylde Borough Council announce a ban on all multi line kites, they announced this ban on Thursday before good Friday thus preventing any attempt at communication over the Easter break.  No signage was posted, no information was made available to the public with the exception of the Beach Patrol Officer informing people of the situation.

The ban was as the result of a complaint from a member of the public 1 month prior to the council enforcing a ban.  Due to the outrage caused the local kiting community and the national kiting community acted.  A large amount of media coverage insued in the North West including BBC's North West Tonight and ITV's Granada Reports.  This did not paint the council in a favourable light.
 
The resulting pressure of a campaign launched by ourselves but with the help of local kite pilot's, public at large and the governing bodies of the sport managed to alter the course of events.  Our thanks must go to Mike Shaw, Peter Barratt, PHil Clarkson, and the BLCC / BKSA / BPKA / BFKA for their kind assistance.
 
The end result was the council spending £18'000 obtaining advice and technical guidance to develop a beach management plan.  The report was produced by Aitkins and was titled "Safer Sands".  Since the birth of the report very little has been achieved by the Council in relation to management of the beach.
 
We did however see a return of multi line kiting to the coast within 9 weeks of the initial ban.  Our main points arising were;
 
No information / signage / legal powers or enforcement meant that the "practical & reasonable" steps reuired by the HSE had not been taken leading to the council without a defence in court should an accident occur following the ban.
 
Kitesurfers had a legal right of egress as a personal water craft i.e. they can get off the water whereever they liked and since the sport was not banned at Blackpool just meters away the ban was un-inforcable
 
The Council could take "reasonable & practicable" measures by issuing a code of practice and providing information in the form of signage available to the public and kite pilot's
 
A "no fly" zone could be advised at the head of the beach towards the dunes, this would prevent people from losing control of kites where the public tend to be, thus reducing the risk to the public.
 
Since 2006 we have been working to find a solution to bringing wind powered wheel sports back to St. Anne's Beach in a manner that will prevent accidents involving the public.
 
Other links to articles related to this are here;
 
 
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