Kiosk closure upsets beachgoers

This summer there’s been a change at Bondi beach: for the first time since 1933 Bondi was without an effective beach security deposit service.

Until last year three generations of a Bondi family rented out surfboards, wetsuits and sun lounges, sold sunscreen and helped locals and visitors to secure their valuables in one of their onsite lockers.

“My grandfather, Stanley McDonald, was one of the first lifeguards on Bondi beach back in 1913,” Neil McDonald said. “After 20 years of service with the lifeguards he tried his hand at hiring equipment on Bondi beach, my father took over from him, and in 1991 I took over.”

The service ran with the help of onsite storage provided by one of the three tunnels on Bondi beach but this season the McDonalds and their services were no longer available.
After concrete cancer was discovered within the tunnel structure, Neil McDonald was asked to vacate in June 2009.

Mr McDonald informed the council that operating the service at Bondi beach was unfeasible without storage.

“We have 120 beach umbrellas, a couple of hundred sun lounges, wetsuits, lycra shirts, body boards, about 80 surfboards, so there was a significant quantity of equipment,” he said. “I had to store all these in commercial storage at a significant cost.”

Mr McDonald researched possible alternatives and came up with a storage solution, which the council rejected.

The council then invited tenders for the operation, without the use of the concrete tunnel. Mr McDonald submitted a tender but was not successful, and the tender was awarded to a businessman who runs a similar operation on Manly beach.

Mayor Sally Betts said she was aware of Mr McDonald’s concerns but defended the council decision.

“Neil wanted a container on the promenade and we didn’t want that,” she said.

But local resident Alex Tees, a former user of Mr McDonald’s secure lockers, claims that the takeover was a complete “stuff up”.

“The bloke who won the tender lives in Manly and doesn’t have the resources or time to provide the appropriate services required at Bondi,” he said. “He was supposed to start around December, never did, so all we had throughout summer was 15 security lockers.”

Mr Tees said there had been “reliable reports of people having their car keys stolen from the lockers and people have lost a couple of cars as a result”.

“I think there should be an investigation by the NSW Ombudsman. I think the council should publish all the relevant documents relating to the tender and release it to the public,” he said.

“The issue is no longer Waverley Council’s treatment of Neil McDonald. There is now no service at all.”

But Mayor Betts denied any problems aside from a “slight delay” in signing the contract.
“The new owner has been operating, and operating quite well,” she said.

“We had one or two teething issues which have been fixed up and obviously the weather has not exactly been sun chair weather.”
– By Liam Kinkead