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Summer Safety Starts StronglyThe summer season has gotten off to a very good start. By Bass Coast Shire Council - 18th December 2006 - Back to News That is the overwhelming feedback received from the Police, ambulance, community groups and Council’s Local Laws team this week.
Late November and the early part of December traditionally sees groups of young people arrive in Bass Coast to celebrate the end of school and studies. This year, the ‘schoolies’ celebrations have been notable for the good behaviour of the visitors.
Local Laws Team Leader, Kaye Hall said it was very encouraging to see that the education programs that had been put in place over the past few years appear to be working.
"The schoolies period really marks the beginning of our summer," said Ms Hall.
"Police and emergency services figures do reflect that this year has started extremely well."
Ambulance call outs low
Regional Ambulance Victoria (RAV) reported only 10 incidents that could be categorised as schoolies related from 18 November to 10 December.
The 10 incidents accounted for 8.5% of their total workload in that period and related to alcohol and minor injuries. RAV officers commented on the responsible actions of the young people in calling 000.
Police figures
Police figures for the period also reflected the low number of incidents. In general there was a marginal increase in the number of calls that indicated problems with "schoolies". However the majority of incidents involved older visitors to the area, as well as locals. Despite reports that schoolies celebrations were a problem, Police reported a negligible impact on overall policing operations.
Monitoring visitors
Ms Hall said being able to monitor and keep track of visitors to the Shire was an important part of the work of Local Laws teams and other agencies.
"For instance, the focus during schoolies over recent years has been to get the young people coming down to register at the Youth caravan," said Ms Hall.
"This enables us to keep track of who is in the Shire, as well as giving us emergency contact numbers for the young people.
"We have had very strong response to our Youth Caravan this year," said Ms Hall.
"This has included parents coming up and getting information from the counsellors before their children arrived down for the holiday period.
Ms Hall said it was important that the community were aware that schoolies activities were not promoted outside the Shire, to attract extra visitors to the area.
"In fact, the registration process revealed that a very high proportion of the young people here over schoolies, are staying at homes owned by their parents or relatives," said Ms Hall.
Good behaviour impressive
Local resident Bettie Tie, who worked on the Lion’s Club Barbeque for the schoolie’s said she was very impressed by the young visitors.
"They were all very well behaved and it was a pleasure to serve them," said Mrs Tie.
Karley Oakley from Bass Coast Community Health, who manned the Youth caravan, concurred with Mrs Tie’s assessment.
"They were really appreciative of the support that we were offering," said Ms Oakley.
"I was really impressed that the kids had designated drivers and were being very responsible in terms of alcohol.
"This is a change from previous years and it certainly appears that the education campaigns in this area are making an impact."
Ms Oakley said the reports of schoolies being involved in the disturbance in the Jetty Triangle on Friday 1 December were not correct.
"That fight was definitely between adults, not school kids," said Ms Oakley.
"In fact, we had quite a few kids come to the caravan during the incident, to keep out of harm’s way.
Cr Gareth Barlow said local traders had commented on the good behaviour of the young visitors.
"I have been quite an outspoken critic of schoolies in the past," said Cr Barlow.
"But this year I have not received one complaint.
"Talking to the volunteers and community groups who have been working over this period, every piece of feedback has been positive," continued Cr Barlow.
"Everyone has said how polite and appreciative the kids were."
One area that has concerned the staff, traders and volunteers working over the past few weeks has been the behaviour of some locals.
"There does appear to be a small minority of the local population who take the opportunity to behave very badly, because they are pretty confident that schoolies will get the blame," said Cr Barlow.
Holiday goodwill
Visitor numbers will continue to rise in Bass Coast over the coming weeks.
"This is a very important time of year for our Shire," said Cr Barlow.
"Our businesses rely on summer trading and visitors over summer are an intrinsic part of Bass Coast life.
Ms Hall said Council’s Local Laws team, the Police and other agencies would be very visible over the holiday period.
"Our approach has always been to manage the visitors we get and to focus on keeping everyone as safe and happy as possible.
"We don’t differentiate between a visitor and a resident," continued Ms Hall.
"If you are in the Bass Coast Shire you are under our community safety program and we want to ensure you are taken care of."
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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