VIDEO: Councillor to push for satellite police station at Blue Lagoon

A VIDEO showing a man dancing on top of a taxi at Blue Lagoon at the weekend which is doing the rounds on social media has raised the ire of residents who are calling for stricter law enforcement along this section of the beachfront.

A resident who posted the video said he was shocked to see people partying at 6am at Blue Lagoon and driving home under the influence.

Directing the post at eThekwini Municipality, he said: “Glass, urine, rubbish, people having sex. When are you going to enforce our by-laws? How can you expect the rest of the population to enjoy our beautiful beaches when a small few destroy it?”

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Angry responses included the fact that people no longer went down to the spot as they couldn’t walk barefoot as a result of the broken glass left after alcohol had been consumed and cycling on the promenade in the morning was ‘hell’ because of this. Another view was that penalties for littering were not high enough and that the staff who cleaned up the mess did a great job but there was no support from the law.

https://www.facebook.com/marc.siljebrandt/videos/o.243784235671698/10156521147120830/?type=2&theater

One response was: “Durban Promenade, the place of two faces – real beauty and real Dustbin depending on the day. Gate it and charge entry fee. Declare special by-laws with stiffer penalties and increase enforcement. It will reduce crime in the zone.”

Ward councillor Martin Meyer said it was absolutely shocking to see behaviour like this, but that it was nothing new.

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“I must also commend Metro Police who often go down there. They do enforce the by-laws, they try their best. The main problem here is that Metro Police do not have the resources. They have hundreds of vacant posts but they just don’t have the resources to adequately police the beachfront on a consistent basis. That is where it needs to start. We need to put pressure on the City to finally hire more Metro Police so we can fully enforce the by-laws,” he said.

Meyer said he had quite often personally seen Metro Police enforcing the law there and trying to stop the violations.

“I will be writing to the acting head of Metro Police, Steve Middleton, to ask if he could consider having a Metro Police station there. There are two along the beachfront closer to the old main beachfront and I think having a police station at this section as well, where we have consistent and constant police presence, will go a long way in preventing this type of behaviour as well as the litter and mess,” he said.

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