A sea of discarded liquor bottles, wine boxes and other debris greeted upper Smith Street residents, living in the vicinity of MacPhail Park this morning following Sunday evening’s party that attracted hundreds of people.

At around 6 p.m., residents started calling the Courier, councillors, and Endumeni Residents Association members, complaining of loud music, cars blocking Smith Street, and people drinking on the pavement.

At around 8 30pm FC Bester of the Endumeni Residents Association said he had received many calls to report the noise. It is unclear if the SAPS were called.

A Smith Street resident told the Courier: “No control…massive noise, it’s getting worse by the minute. How they allow this in a public area goes beyond me.”

Another living on Union Street said ‘it was sad that others have the right to party and disrupt a quiet Sunday evening for others’.

Cllr Naresh Gopie said he had also received calls. He went down to the party at around 9 15 pm where he said ‘people were already leaving’.

It was sad at a business meeting at the SAPS this week that while the municipal by-laws that forbid drinking in public or in public places have been implemented and legislated, while there are no penalties attached to such offences, the court ‘chucks these cases out’.

Nationally, the amending of the Liquor Act allows drinking in public and the only controls that can be implemented are through municipal by-laws.