In response to Brighton and Hove City Council's proposed new beach bylaws, it would appear they are taking a similar route to Adur District Council, which introduced designated bathing areas this year.

Adur sensibly sought expert advice by having a meeting with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), sailing, windsurfing and kitesurfing representatives and also asked for comments from local people.

The minutes of this meeting are unavailable. It then chose to ignore all recommendations, the most crucial being that a beach safety

system should be set up.

Adur has nothing, not even a red flag to warn of offshore winds.

Suggestions were that Worthing

Borough Council take control of beach safety, by extending its operation.

It has the safety boats, beach patrol, red flag system, beach

inspectors and expertise to do so but this suggestion was also ignored.

Adur's new designated bathing beaches have caused nothing but confusion. People presume there are some safety measures in place when, in fact, there are not.

In two separate incidents at Lancing this summer, if it had not been for the intervention of the public, two children could have drowned.

If recommendations such as a simple red flag had been taken into account, these incidents may never have occurred.

If Brighton and Hove is to have new safety bylaws, it must seek expert advice and use it, unlike Adur.

Proposals to exclude windsurfing and kitesurfing from within 200 metres of the shore show complete lack of understanding of both sports. In effect, this proposal would ban these water sports all together.

Restricting the speed of sailing dinghies is ridiculous, when you

consider that any idiot with no training can go to sea in a speedboat. Statistics show that this is when most accidents and fatalities occur.

Miss Gemma Bailey

-Chester Avenue, Lancing