Plan to halt anti-social behaviour in popular park by ... increasing legal drinking hours
An influential residents’ group has voted to extend the legal drinking time at a popular Sydney park by four hours despite its growing reputation as a ‘pop-up pub’.
Manly
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- ‘Council has dropped the ball on East Esplanade’
- East Esplanade, known as ‘The Office’ is becoming ‘The Bathroom’
- Sydney council to pay police to patrol ‘pop-up pub”
AN influential residents’ group has voted to extend the legal drinking time at a popular park by four hours despite its growing reputation as a “pop-up pub”.
Members of the Manly Community Forum, voted 31-29 in favour of the changes for East Esplanade Reserve on Monday, rather than a total alcohol ban.
Northern Beaches Council previously deferred a decision until the forum was further consulted on a plan to have user-pays police patrol East Esplanade and increase the time people can spend drinking at the area known as “The Office” from 4pm to 8pm.
Forum chair Ray Mathieson said yesterday their support was conditional on ranger and police patrols and the establishment of a safety committee.
“I was surprised more people didn’t go for a 24-hour ban,” Mr Mathieson said. “Either way it requires better patrolling to be effective.”
Resident Don Walker called for a total ban. “They (park users) jump our fence, they urinate, defecate, you name it. They don’t care,” he said.
“It is just a minority group that is wanting to treat the local properties around here as their own toilet. When the residents complain to them they are abusive and swear, you are not game to go out.”
Mr Walker feared allowing people to drink for an extra four hours would create more anti-social behaviour.
“We need police and the council patrolling it. I don’t want the rangers involved late at night because these people are drunk,” he said.
The forum vote on Monday night follows last week’s meeting between police and councillors where the peninsula’s top cop urged them to better manage the park. At the meeting, commander Dave Darcy urged councillors to pull their weight, pointing to simple solutions like putting on the sprinklers to disperse revellers. He also urged them to look at improving amenities such as rubbish collection, lights, toilets and CCTV.
After the meeting Deputy Mayor Candy Bingham conceded the council had “dropped the ball”.
And residents agreed, calling for better infrastructure.
Mr Mathieson highlighted the conflicting signage, some of which says the area is an alcohol free area, while other point out current bans form 4.30pm.
Judith Hewitson pointed to a lack of public toilets and bins as relevant issues. The council is set to revamp the area, which Ms Hewitson hoped would help.
“I am hoping there is a change of culture and that there is monitoring by police and the rangers,” she said. “There will be other activities that you can have here that aren’t just about drinking.”
Ms Hewitson supported the 8pm curfew as it allowed families to have a picnic and wine in the park.
Supt Darcy would not comment on the details of his meeting with the council, but told the Manly Daily it needed to be a team approach.
He stressed crime was low on East Esplanade when compared to the Corso, where the most attention was needed. He also pointed to issues like the recent spate of youth violence as more urgent. He said Manly’s parks were increasingly being highlighted as party havens on social media.
“Manly has just won Australia’s best beach, that is going to bring a whole lot of people here who don’t understand that we do things quietly,” Supt Darcy said. “They are using it in a way that is different to the way locals used it.”
Supt Darcy said the “problem is not insurmountable”.
“We are listening to the community ... just because we haven’t gone to a 24-hour ban doesn’t mean we are not thinking about that,” he said.
“But let’s try to do it in a way that is going to give the best amenity to the biggest amount of people.”
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