THERE’S growing pressure on Fremantle council to stop hiring out beaches to businesses after evidence emerged polystyrene balls that polluted Port Beach after Australia Day came from a ticketed event.

Salt on the Beach restaurant had initially denied the balls were from bean bags it had hired for its beach party, with owner Ian Hutchinson telling the Herald all bean bags were accounted for and undamaged (January 31, 2015).

However, angry beach-user Georgina Johnston sent the Herald a photo this week showing Salt’s bean bags piled up after the event ready for collection. One is open and its internal lining partially removed and empty. Inside, small polystyrene balls are visible.

Mr Hutchinson concedes there may have been some miscommunication but insisted Salt had done all it could to clean the beach, devoting 60 to 80 staff hours to going well beyond what was required. “We picked up two other empty bean bags, glasses and plastic chairs that weren’t from our event,” he told the Herald. “There are bigger environmental disasters down there, such as the eroding beach, and nothing’s been affected—no animals have been injured, no children have been injured.”

• Y Striders Leonie Harper, Pam Adamson, Ros Cook and Kerrie Tomlinson were still picking up the polystyrene balls this week from the Australia Day beach party. Photo by Steve Grant.

Describing Salt as a great defender of the environment that puts far more effort into protecting its patch of beach than any other event organisers he says all equipment is counted on and off the beach, and it bans glass or any object that can’t be easily carried away. “Actually, Port Beach is probably the cleanest beach in WA now,” he says.

Mr Hutchinson says the lesson’s been learned and he now supports those calling for a complete ban on beanbags along all WA beaches.

But Ms Johnston, a Port Beach Polar Bear, wants corporate events on public beaches stopped because not enough respect is shown to the environment. “I went down there at 6am and it was terrible,” she said. “There were cigarette butts everywhere, the polystyrene balls all over the shore, and I even picked up three plastic cups from the water while I was swimming.”

Mayor Brad Pettitt wants to persist with the beach-business trial, saying there are many benefits, including positive publicity. He’s bitterly disappointed by the Australia Day aftermath and says council staff were ropable after “sticking their necks out” and championing the trials.

But council economic manager Tom Griffiths says the council is very pleased with the trial to date “and the groundswell of public support backs up this view”.

by STEVE GRANT