COVID-19: Northern beaches get more flagged swim areas and ranger social distancing patrols
Northern Beaches Council has revealed a raft of measures to cut the risk of catching COVID-19 on the beach this summer
Manly
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More flagged swimming areas will be set up on beaches to help cut the risk of spreading COVID-19 over summer.
Northern Beaches Council will also increase patrols by rangers and lifeguards to make sure beachgoers, and people in other public gathering places like skate parks, are following social distancing rules.
And the council will work with Surf Life Saving to use drones to help monitor crowd capacity at beaches.
The new measure are part of the council’s just released “COVID-19 Summer Action Plan
for Outdoor Public Spaces”.
Mayor Michel Regan said the “proactive” plan aimed to “maximise public safety and reduce the risk of COVID-19” during the upcoming busy holiday period.
As well as beaches and rock pools, the plan also applies to the management of outdoor public spaces that are at risk of large gatherings breaching social distancing rules including parks, BBQ areas, shelter sheds and outdoor seating areas, playground and exercise stations, skate parks as well as walking tracks and trails.
A Beach Safety Working Group is also being set up with representatives from the council, NSW Surf Life Saving, Northern Beaches Police and NSW Health. It will meet each week to review figures from the previous weekend and public holiday and work out if a response is needed.
The council’s plan was released ahead of the NSW Govenrmenbt’s new “COVID Safe Summer Plan” on Monday which urges beachgoers to ‘Keep a beach towel length between you’ (1.5 metres) and anyone not from the same household.
Current NSW Public Health Orders recommend people keep at least 1.5m away from each other where possible. This does not apply to people living in the same household.
The NSW plan, revealed by Premier Gladyd Berejikilian, also encourage businesses to take advantage of outdoor dining and will allow authorities to mark out safe distancing in parklands and highly visited public spaces from the beginning of October.
“The COVID Safe Summer Plan encourages the community and local businesses to take advantage of our glorious warm weather while using public spaces safely,” ms Berejiklian said.
The northern beaches’ plan also includes more cleaning of public places; an ongoing review of parking restrictions to reduce beach numbers; more signs in public places; more announcements by lifeguards and messages on social media channels.
As part of the plan, the council’s lifeguard co-ordinator would set up additional flagged swimming areas on beaches “as required and where practical to reduce crowd density”.
The plan includes crowd capacity figures for beaches, based on social distancing rules.
At Manly beach, for example, the estimated crowd threshold at low tide is 4000 people, while at high tide it would reduce to 2500.
Lifeguards will conduct crowd counts at 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm each day.
If the beaches get too full lifeguards, lifesavers and rangers would close the beaches with help from the police.
Crowed thresholds have also been set down for parks and the 10 skate parks on the northern beaches.
Mayor Michael Regan said being COVID-safe this summer was a shared responsibility.
“We really want to keep our beaches, parks, playgrounds and pools open so people can enjoy them to full this summer,” Mr Regan said.
“But the threat of COVID-19 is still very real and we all need to remember this when we are out and about this summer.
“If you get to a public place and it looks uncomfortably busy, it might be a good idea to try somewhere else, or try again later.
“We’ll be working with Police and Surf Lifesaving to do all we can to protect the health of everyone. We also need the co-operation of the community so we can all have a great summer.”