A particularly busy festive season is drawing to a close on the North Coast.

We asked our audience about some of the positives they noticed over the past few weeks and what could be improved for the next holiday influx.

Charmaine Kotze – The life guards are next level.

Valerie Widmann Govender – Loved all the roadblocks for drunk drivers. I’m sure that saved a few lives and hopefully taught a few lessons!

Wendy Everitt – The security at Salt Rock main beach was incredible! Thank you to all the private security companies and KDM. It’s no small task managing this.

Sue Norris – My first festive season having just moved to Ballito. Wow, parking chaos. Perhaps better communication especially for closures such as Umdloti – we drove there yesterday to eat at a specific restaurant only to be turned away by the police/security due to no parking – so restaurants losing business too. Ballito Lifestyle parking was quite nuts with no/little control especially on the use of the disabled parking. My 88-year-old aunt with a walker/wheelchair was with me but able-bodied people were using the disabled parking as a normal parking spot so even with a disabled badge it was impossible to park. That being said, the security everywhere was amazing and the general vibe was excellent.

Wendy Robert – UIP were absolutely amazing, getting the litter picked up on the beaches/promenade. Kept our lovely town so clean.

Patricia Schröder – Water shortages were a problem in the Sheffield and Salt Rock areas.

Sally Logan – Just expect the crowds because it will happen. I think it was managed incredibly well, clean beaches, cops were present etc. So well done to all.

Neil Young – The overall service at restaurants etc. needs improvement. Some staff are just very unhelpful and arrogant.

Sandy Mey – Curb reckless, negligent and noisy drivers roaring across town. Parking along beach roads is a major problem.

Gill Birch – Excellent season all round. Thompson’s Bay lifeguards were amazing and I’m sure all other beaches can say the same thing. Cleaning staff great and we can’t do much about having enough parking. 340 days of the year we have plenty. Well done everyone!

Jane de Beer – Water and electricity woes need attention – we can’t have paying guests leave early due to lack of a basic necessity like water.

Sandy Harvey – The fireworks this year were insane and not just one night but every night for a week. We’re a compassionate town and we love and are proud of our wildlife, but our officials seem to be useless at enforcing the by-laws. You can phone them and give them the exact location but still nothing gets done. It’s only going to get worse. Destroys all festive good intentions about welcoming holidaymakers.

Kim Steinberg – I’d say just more access to temporary bins on the beaches during busy season would be good. Although the rubbish was cleaned up after each day, a lot of it was blown into the sea when the winds picked up which was then washing up onto the rocks and other small beach coves that weren’t being manned for clean up.

Genevieve Tomkinson Daw – As phenomenal and incredible as our lifeguards, IPSS and volunteers are – I feel that more signage and awareness needs to be brought to ocean safety, rip currents, and swimming where lifeguards are not present. It breaks my heart every year, as to the amount of near and fatal drownings.

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