MacDonald, Valerie
Cobourg Daily Star Local News
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

 

Council urged to support pedestrians' right to walk along shore

With lakefront property owners Bill MacDonald and Stan Frost abstaining, the balance of Cobourg councillors passed two motions last night to support access to the west beach by pedestrians.

Town staff have been asked to check into the legal rights of citizens to continue the use of the west beach and the legal rights of property owners, some of whom own out into the lake.

Councillors also endorsed a private member's bill introduced at Queen's Park last week, as urged by Sydenham Street, Cobourg, resident Pat Stanley, who urged councillors to do so during her speech to them last night.

Mrs. Stanley, who heads Shorewalk Cobourg, part of Ontario Shorewalk, participated in a news conference last week and highlighted the fencing of lakeside private property, plus the wooden boardwalk dispute at Cobourg's west harbour. The news conference was a prelude to the introduction of the private member's bill.

Niagara Falls Liberal MPP Kim Craitor's bill, if passed, would "reserve to the public a right of passage to permit passage along the shoreline of any Great Lake between the shore of the lake and the high water mark."

The U.S. Supreme Court has recently upheld the right of passage along the U.S. side of the Great Lakes, based on historic British Common Law, she says.

The Lake Ontario shoreline in Cobourg in particular has been used by the public for well over 150 years, Mrs. Stanley stressed, both at Queen's Park and in the Victoria Hall council chamber.

 

 

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