St Kilda alcohol ban: Port Phillip Council faces massive ‘public safety’ bill for extra cop patrols
UPDATE: Police will likely charge Port Phillip Council a whopping $116,000 for extra summer foreshore patrols after the council refused to enforce a seasonal ban on beach boozing.
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UPDATE: Police will likely charge Port Phillip Council a whopping $116,000 for extra summer foreshore patrols after the council refused to enforce a seasonal ban on beach boozing.
With violence and vandalism on the St Kilda foreshore getting worse, police have demanded the council introduce a booze ban during the peak summer months.
In a letter sent to the council, and seen by the Leader, Victoria Police said “without alcohol restrictions on the St Kilda foreshore a user pays system will be necessary to ensure community safety going forward”.
The letter, from Inspector Jason Kelly, calls for the council to fork out for one sergeant and three constables over 40 days of summer at a cost of almost $3000 a day.
St Kilda foreshore booze ban extended until April
St Kilda foreshore booze ban: Police push for permanent restrictions
But councillors last night voted against the summer-long ban.
Mayor Bernadene Voss said the council’s decision to only ban booze on certain days, including Christmas, New Year’s Eve and Australia Day was about striking a “balance”.
The existing local law allowing public drinking from 9am to 8pm, has been reduced to noon until 8pm.
“We can never please everyone but we have done our best to manage the highest risk days when large numbers of people flock to the foreshore,” Cr Voss said.
She said ratepayers should not be forced to subsidise “a state responsibility”.
“The requests for police attendance at the foreshore area in St Kilda have been increasing over the past four summers, however this increase was slowed in summer 2017/18 when alcohol bans were introduced,” Insp Kelly’s letter said.
Similar agreements are in place with police and several coastal councils in New South Wales.
Port Phillip Council imposed an alcohol ban on December 26 for the rest of the summer. It was later extended to April 3.
It followed a series of debauched parties last summer that saw beaches trashed and ratepayers foot a clean-up bill of more than $33,000.
Insp Kelly said since the bans were imposed, offences had dropped 19 per cent on the previous summer’s incidents.
Albert Park state Labor MP Martin Foley said the decision to scrap the ban had “condemned us to another summer of mayhem”.
“(It’s) a dog’s breakfast of regulation which is both confusing and difficult to implement,” he said.
“The council’s position denies the evidence of the reduced crime rates since the temporary alcohol bans were put in place.
“It is quite clear the views of our hardworking police count for nothing.”
Mr Foley called on the council “to end this nonsense” and work to make the comunity safer.
At a meeting last month, representatives of Luna Park, Palais Theatre, The Stokehouse, St Kilda Sea Baths and St Kilda Life Saving Club supported further bans amid escalating violence and fears for public safety.
Captain Baxter’s owner Angela Dawson, speaking on behalf of Port Phillip Licensees Association, told the February 8 meeting the foreshore has “become a melting pot of ... violence, private and public vandalism and recurring first aid issues left to traders to deal with”.
Port Phillip council officers have also called for an annual booze ban from November 1 to March 31.
The ban would bring the tourist spot partly in line with other dry beaches such as Bondi and Manly in Sydney, where alcohol is banned all year.
There were 84 booze-related offences recorded along the entire Port Phillip foreshore in the three years to September 2017, with drunk and disorderly conduct the most common charge.
Council officers found “the risks do not merit (a total ban) given the escalation of risks is in the peak season”.
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