I would like to respond to the front page article, “Violence erupts at beach,” Courier, March 28.

There was no violence at Thompson’s Bay beach. There was a car accident on Ocean Drive and violence erupted in the street.

For the record we have 24-hour security at Thompson’s Bay beach with Marshall Security guards doing a fantastic job stopping anyone with alcohol going onto the beach. Everyone is searched.

This is every weekend and long weekends and during December and January holidays. Since this incentive was started a few years ago by the residents of Thompson’s Bay, the incidents on the beach relating to alcohol abuse have stopped.

Very occasionally someone refuses to be searched but the Marshall guards supervisor is always called in and can sort out the problem. We have had no incidences whatsoever that have caused anyone concern. We are very proud of our Marshall Security guards who do a wonderful job. We realise that our police have a very large area to patrol and often don’t have the manpower to respond as quickly as they should.

The article on the front page is very misleading.

Perhaps if you can print this letter, other beaches can take a similar position and together we can become one of the safest holiday areas. Let’s try be positive and protect our beautiful town.

Ed – Thank you so much for your feedback on our front-page article. Perhaps ‘beach parking’ would have been a better headline, however I felt that the proximity to the beach and that because those drinking in the parking lot are mostly beachgoers, it was an acceptable omission due to space constraints.

I hope that as a town we will be as proactive as you have been in preventing the problem from escalating to the level we experienced in 2020.

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