By Nangamso Mabindla

Executive Mayor Sindisile Maclean has praised the City Police and South African Police Services for their efforts in making East London's beaches safe for visitors over the festive season.

"I am impressed with the way the City Police and SAPS were able to monitor access to the city's beaches. It limited the number of cars accessing the beach front," Councillor Maclean said.

Strict crowd control measures were put into place in the run up to the holiday season, with emphasis being placed on limiting access to beaches and controlling alcohol sales.

Certain roads leading to the beach were closed with motorists having to purchase parking tickets to access the beachfront. These measures had a knock-on effect, with crowd numbers on the beaches being much lower than in previous years.

On New Year's Day, the mayor and his staff flew over the city's beaches in a helicopter to look at the crowds that had turned up to celebrate. About 45 000 people were on the Eastern Beach on the Esplanade, the most popular local beach.

This low turn-out surprised the police's provincial disaster management co-ordinator, Captain John Fobian. "Last year we had a 100 000 people visiting the Eastern Beach. This year we had anticipated more, so the drop in numbers took us by surprise."

He attributed the drop in visitors to people making more use of the other beaches around the city. "I think people went to other beaches like Bonza Bay, Gonubie and Kidds Beach," said Captain Fobian.

As part of the campaign to keep the city free of crime over the festive season, law enforcers also confiscated R10 000 worth of liquor and ordered three bottle stores in Quigney, near the Eastern Beach, to close during New Year celebrations.

"The order for these three bottle stores to close showed that law enforcers were serious about controlling alcohol," said Councillor Maclean.

Local law enforcers would continue to look at ways to improve measures to ensure the safety and security of holidaymakers, said Councillor Maclean.

One such area would be to clamp down on access to liquor on the beachfront during the holiday periods. "Because people often become aggressive when they consume too much alcohol we will now limit the number of vehicles accessing the beach front as some of these sell alcohol to the visitors."