Dangerous jet-ski riders with children on board spark safety concerns

Richard Evans, Local Democracy Reporter

Dangerous jet-ski riders in Welsh harbour have been recorded travelling at three and four times the speed limit along a narrow channel with young children aboard.

Conwy County Council’s Harbour Advisory Committee has heard the council is monitoring the situation using CCTV cameras but has so far failed to bring forward a successful prosecution.

That’s because the latest attempt involved a rider who had removed the registration plate from their vehicle.

Speaking at the Conwy Harbour Advisory Committee’s June meeting, Harbour Master Matt Forbes stressed that most jet-ski riders complied with the rules but said a minority were putting others at risk.

“I want to stress there is a minority of riders which we are finding contravening the 10-knot speed limit within the harbour. The majority do behave themselves,” he said.

“From the last meeting, we have had a number of instances of dangerous behaviour, so speeding up to 30 or 40 knots with young children on board these vessels, and it tends to be in the narrowest area of the channel between Deganwy and the beacons.

“The new CCTV camera has been capturing footage. We’ve been working with the CCTV staff to capture it live, so when we are aware something is happening to film it.

“Before we can bring a prosecution, we need to be sure that we are going to be successful. What we don’t want to do is bring one in and it be unsuccessful. So we just need to have that evidentiary chain, which is the vehicle launching, the jet ski, with the rider on it, with the speeding, with it being recovered, and we haven’t quite got there just yet.”

He added: “The last time we were close, but he had removed his registration plate from the vehicle. So people are obviously aware of the camera there now.”

Mr Forbes said the warning signs had been improved on the harbour, so the speed limit was “very clear”.

He added water patrols had been carried out over the last few weekends and that everyone had behaved themselves.