Rubbish dumped at bins on Brighton’s foreshore

“Crazy” beachgoers partied into the early hours of Boxing Day on Brighton’s foreshore, with residents less than impressed by the alcohol bottles and bags of rubbish left sprawled across the sand.

Disgruntled Brighton residents discovered rubbish sprawled across the beach on Boxing Day.

Merry makers left Brighton’s foreshore littered with rubbish and empty alcohol bottles following Christmas Day festivities.

Local residents say partygoers have been pushed down the coast following St Kilda’s alcohol ban, leaving Brighton’s beach boxes scattered with rubbish.

Jarrod Kanizay, who has lived off Beach Rd for 20 years, said the foreshore was left the messiest he’d ever seen it.

“By and large people did the right thing and put their rubbish next to the already overflowing bins, but there were 30 to 50 bags next to them,” he said.

A young crowd of drinkers littered Brighton beach on Christmas Day and locals have woken to a huge mess on their beach.

He estimated there were easily a couple of thousand merry makers celebrating until 1am.

“The past years have been good but it’s a bit of a shame, we don’t want it to be the catalyst for a full alcohol ban because you still want to be able to have a glass of wine with your friends and family,” Mr Kanizay said.

“I think this means New Year’s Eve will be pretty full on.”

Mr Kanizay said he and his family went across to the beach at 5.30am and saw it lined with discarded rubbish.

He said Bayside council was quick to act, with workers cleaning the beach from 6am.

“I was pleased to see council had their merry men of workers out there at 6am,” Mr Kanizay said.

“People moved from St Kilda down to here, even New Year’s Eve has never been this bad.”

By the time the Herald Sun arrived at 10:30am, the beach was cleared of all rubbish.

“It’s pretty amazing they cleaned it up so quickly,” Mr Kanizay said.

Bayside Council has been praised for its rapid clean up of Brighton beach after rubbish was left sprawled across the foreshore on Christmas Day.

The City of Port Phillip banned the consumption of alcohol on St Kilda’s foreshore from November to March, voted in by councillors in December 2018.

City of Port Phillip mayor Cr Bernadette Voss said yesterday that the council believed that its alcohol ban had led to a large reduction in litter and had improved behaviour.

“Council has not noticed a drop in visitors enjoying this beautiful beach since the ban began,” Cr Voss said.

“Several thousand people enjoyed St Kilda beach yesterday (on Christmas Day).

“Council officers patrolling the beach said there were no issues with anti-social behaviour.”

Bayside has no restriction on public consumption of alcohol.

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Lyndal Payne also lives off Beach Rd and said the festivities on Wednesday night were “absolute craziness”.

“It was loud, it sounded like a football match,” Ms Payne said.

“The biggest we’ve ever seen.”

Beach Road’s Priya Jay said she got home at 6pm on Wednesday and heard a lot of noises.

“We heard people screaming,” Ms Jay said.

Victoria Police received no reports of incidents along the Brighton foreshore on Christmas Day.

Originally published as Rubbish dumped at bins on Brighton’s foreshore