Waverly Council’s Mayor, Paula Masselos, has warned beachgoers that “draconian measures” are being considered for the remainder of the holiday season after Bronte Beach in Sydney was trashed with rubbish on Christmas Day.
A crowd ranging between 15,000 and 20,000 people left the public beach space with abandoned picnic rugs, plastic, alcohol bottles, discarded clothing and nitrous oxide canisters.
Cleaners, paid for by Waverley Council, were at Bronte from 11pm on Christmas Day until 5am on Boxing Day cleaning up the mess, with local residents joining the clean up too.
Mayor Masselos told The Sydney Morning Herald she would be talking to police, rangers, other officers and councils, “to look at what we might be able to do to deal with this kind of situation” in the lead up to New Years Day and Australia Day.
Mayor Masselos said with New Years events and Australia Day coming up, she did not want to resort to ticketed events and banning parties, but is considering it.
“[A ticketed event] is really hard to manage. It doesn’t stop [the problem of] what to do with all the rubbish left,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald.
The Greek Australian Mayor said the beach was for everybody and that she wanted people to enjoy themselves in their first proper summer in years without any dreadful consequences.
“We want to ensure people come enjoy themselves but we aren’t left to clean up a dreadful mess. It’s extremely antisocial, extremely rude and very aggressive,” the Mayor said.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
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