What our security was told by the SP Police Department was the first 30' are open access anytime of day or night. After 6pm until 6am the rest of the dock is private, from 6am to 6pm the dock is public. May not be law but that is what they are saying.

see that's what I mean..total BS made up by someone and not anything that can be held up in court.

I don't know squat about it!...so I would only be good as a dictator.
hea we're crossing threads here

That's clear as mud , thanks for the info , I learned the rules , IT DEPENDS ON WHO , WHAT , AND WHEN

Just checked with owner of Oceanside, been here 30 years, has a dock, he's also a cop.
He says the docks are all public, from 6 to 6, unless you are trying to do something commercial, you cannot be kicked off.
My guess is it still depends on the individuals involved as far as local intervention from the cops.
Court? Who knows?
Would take years to find out.

I think common sense resolves a lot of problems. Docks are built over public land (or sea if you prefer) and are meant to give access to the beach and dock boats. So for the purpose of getting from the sea (by boat) ashore (or vice versa) they should be public.

Not for fishing, docking a strange boat all day (except for emergencies or with permission), picnicking, listening to your boom box, hanging around to mention a few examples. As there are boats docked, at night no-one should be there, to prevent theft of props, lower units and other stuff from the boats.

Gated docks should be open during the day time, to allow public access to land. A commercial business should not use a private dock to operate their business, I mean when you have a small dock at your house, you wouldn't want to see crowds from a neighbouring business day in and out trampling your dock, right?

There are public rights but also rights for the owner, builder, maintainer, and taxpayer of the dock. I have never checked the law, only heard stories about it. I don't think docks rights are specified so much, due to the small scale of of our beautiful Belize, again, just use common sense and "Keep it Real", as "Ali G" would say!

I think Short's comments above make complete sense and generally reflect law, custom and common sense.

If you have a legal pier, you have a pier permit. The permit states the conditions under which you operate. I've read quite a few of them and the language of each is a bit different. Most that I have read state that there can be no gate at all, but if you've had your boat toyed with you might well understand why some people want one!

I think that the folks who enjoy the use of other people's piers should maybe say thanks for free access to something that somebody else is paying for & maintaining.

The costs for a pier are not insubstantial. The annual fees for a permit are quite usually in excess of $1,000 a year for a residential pier. Insurance (if you get it) is really really high at more than 3% of the value insured. Building a pier is not cheap and they don't last all that long either.

I know that the Belize Yacht Club actively removes anyone from their dock who doesn't have business with the BYC, at any time. They get the support of the police when they want it, even though it seems the public do have right of access during the day.

All of the docks in that area have locked gates on them, and typically they're locked outside normal business hours. I know someone who was staying at BYC who arrived by boat about 7am and was unable to get off the dock. The same was true of all the other local docks, and she had to land at the Bowen dock and walk down. She wasn't very pleased.

I would just feel weird about walking out onto someone else's dock

You have to go on someone else's dock if you live on the Cayes and don't happen to own a dock. It's the way you get to swim, fish and have access to boat transportation. Very few people have their own docks as very few people live on the seafront. The beach front and docks being open to the public is something that many visitors say are big attractions to them and one of the reasons they love visiting Ambergris Caye.