This weeks article in the San Pedro Sun about the 66 feet of public beach has me very concerned about the Town Boards attitude towards motorized Traffic on the beaches of Ambergris.
The law of public beach is a good one , but doesn't include the right of driving your golf cart, motorcycle or car on the beach.
Residents of the Island north of the river have barricaded the Beach from access to motorized vehicles..not fenced to keep out the public but put post in place so motorized vehicles can't use the beach as a road.
The Town Board is unable to control traffic on this side of the river so the residents have had to erect barriers to keep traffic on the road rather than the beach.

Hey E., if the Town Board can not or will not control crime in town central, surely controlling traffic north of the bridge is of little concern. Kudos for the citizens that have taken matters into their own hands. It takes a village.......

Build a road and they will come.

My last few trips at White Sands the motorcycles were irritating and to some extent a little scary! It was strange to have to stop, look both ways and the cross the beach...
That was a year ago so I imagine the traffic is only getting worse.

Seems like the motorcycles could navigate the "road" and leave the beach alone?

Exactly, there is a road but you can go faster on the beach.
The law restricting private beach and dock is a blessing to the country of Belize.
Other countrys have created an atmosphere of apartheid by fencing beach to obtain private areas for the elite/privileged and the SPS article seemed to imply this was the case. Belize law makers in keeping with our heritage of equality among its occupants have created a wise and thoughtful law.
The issues the San Pedro Sun article seems to address is somewhat off target. The public is not being denied its beach. The photos in the article depicting fences are not fences but post to block motorized traffic erected in an effort by residents to control a lawless area of the islands beach.

The way I see it is that the posts were installed by various land owners to keep golfcarts from driving down the beach, and it works well, but the posts never detered motorcycles from driving on the beach, IMHO I would rather have a golf cart rolling slowly past my beach then a motorcycle flying by at 30 to 70 miles per hour. So the only solution to the problem would be to fence off the beach access completely, which at present time is illegal. Don't stop the carnival

Or have the Town Board send officers to ticket people driving on the beach. It really would only take a little of that to be effective.

Good luck making that happen, the govt can't even keep people off the airstrip, and its fenced completely off at least once per year...then they cut the fence and trespass at will. And at present it is a 500.00 bz fine for being caught on the runway.

http://www.governmentofbelize.gov.bz/social_comm_policing.html

Is there currently a COPS program in SP or AC? Short of making citizen's arrests (not sure if Belize law provides for this), community and neighborhood watch members should be able to stop motorized vehicle operators, or at least keep records of the people breaking the law and report it to the police. No one likes a snitch, but those motorcycles and carts can be dangerous on the beaches.

We have a Special Constable program in Belize but honestly I'm not a proponent of citizens playing cop. Its a field day for copwantabes that cause more harm than good.