Anger as mounds of rubbish dumped at The Pillars in Mt Martha
A POPULAR cliff-jumping spot on Melbourne’s coast “smells like a hideous concoction of a public toilet and an oversized filthy ashtray” as rubbish dumping spirals out of control, locals say.
South East
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MOUNDS of rubbish including urine-filled bottles, used sanitary products and thousands of cigarette butts are being collected daily from a popular cliff-jumping site in Mt Martha.
Residents filled 19 garbage bags with rubbish left behind by visitors to The Pillars after a hot weekend.
Peta Donaldson and two other locals spent two hours on Sunday, January 8 cleaning up the mess.
Ms Donaldson said The Pillars and surrounding streets were littered with glass bottles, soft drink containers, pizza boxes, food wrappers, cigarette butts and even used sanitary products.
“We were shocked, disgusted, angered, bewildered and dismayed by the amount of rubbish that was left behind,” she said.
The cliff face has also been vandalised with graffiti sprayed on the rocks in at least two places.
Ms Donaldson visited the area again last Monday with her eight-year-old daughter and found the stench overpowering
“The Pillars literally smells like a hideous concoction of a public toilet and an oversized filthy ashtray,” she said. “It is blatant. There is no respect, no regard.”
Last September Mornington Peninsula Shire introduced a local law banning people from possessing or drinking liquor in public areas in the Pillars precinct.
Teens injured jumping from The Pillars in Mt Martha
Ms Donaldson said the large number of empty bottles of alcohol left at the site and in surrounding streets suggested the ban was being ignored.
Mornington Peninsula Shire acting chief operating officer Niall McDonagh said the area was being patrolled up to eight times a day during warmer weather.
Officers working on the southern peninsula also patrolled The Pillars on their way back to Mornington, he said.
Mr McDonagh said the no stopping areas in surrounding residential streets were also being enforced with support from police with penalty infringement notices issued when required.
He said police were also enforcing parking restrictions along the Esplanade and on nature strips.
Mornington Senior-Constable Neil Prosser said the area was “ on the radar” with police aware of issues around parking, littering and vandalism.
SECRET BEACHES YOU CAN DAYTRIP TO
“We are visiting regularly and enforcing the parking restrictions and alcohol ban,” Sen-Constable Prosser said.
He said a recently introduced road safety plan, including wooden bollards along the side of The Esplanade to prevent illegal parking and electronic 40km/h advisory signage was having a “positive effect”.