Letter: Keep alcohol off metro beaches

Broken bottles, litter scattered

The Herald of February 8 reports that some ANC councillors insisted that alcohol should not be prohibited at beaches as it was the only place where people could enjoy themselves (“Lift beach drink ban – ANC”). “They do not have swimming pools at home.’’

For a start, I do not believe that very many of the pool owners would leave bottles, cans and glasses lying around.

Neither would they smash them, which seems to be the “tradition” of some at the Wells Estate beach.

Over the Christmas seasons a group of us has walked the Bluewater Bay beach early in the morning, at around 5 to 5.30am.

We often crossed over at Wells Estate from the beach to return on the cycle track.

Up until this season we were astounded by the utter devastation – broken bottles, glasses, cans and various plastic items were everywhere.

We are baffled by the revellers’ seeming need to smash and litter with no thought to the law-abiding citizens and the cleaners who look on with apathy, never mind the probability that someone could be seriously injured by the broken glass.

I spoke to the beach supervisor on one occasion and asked him why some of the visitors behaved like that.

He said he could not provide an answer.

It seems that the staff at the resort are, at best, powerless to do anything about this unacceptable behaviour or, at worst, condone it.

The positive aspect that our beach walks this year provided was the fact that there were far fewer empty or broken bottles on the beach, mainly on the grassy picnic areas at the resort.

This seems to indicate to me that, maybe, the ban on alcohol on the beach is having an impact.

I believe the ANC councillors in favour of rescinding the ban on alcohol on the beaches are informed that this will be considered if and when all persons respect public areas including beaches, and stop smashing and littering – until this is achieved the ban will stay.

I do not even need to add that inebriated persons are a danger to themselves and others in the water – they should not be there if they are inebriated, rather drink at home.

The problem with this ban is that a lot of littering takes place after dark – some fishermen are also guilty – so it is difficult to police.

However, if a ban is imposed, it must be enforced 24/7 and the metro must provide staff accordingly.

Maybe the metro policing unit, that should be enforcing the metros bylaws, could target this area 24/7 and enforce the ban – surely there must be fines for littering and causing a public disturbance – then the message may get through!

Also, there have to be sufficient refuse bins, and these must be checked and emptied daily over the festive season.

Nothing irritates more in a public place than lack of refuse bins or ones that are overflowing!

It may even be one of the causes of the unacceptable behaviour mentioned previously.