Vandals smashing spree reinforces concerns

By Mick Roberts

Residents of usually sedate Elizabeth Bay Road are shocked by growing anti-social behaviour they say has spread from nearby troubled Kings Cross into their neighbourhood in recent months.
Residents told The City News that recent vandalism reinforces their concerns over a push for late night bars in Elizabeth Bay Road.
On Good Friday night, glass panels in the street’s two bus shelters were shattered and glass was left strewn over the footpath. Empty beer bottles were also found at the site of the damage.
Local John Challis said it was difficult to understand who could be responsible for such senseless damage. While at the bus stop, The City News was approached by several disgruntled residents expressing concern over the growing incidents of anti-social behaviour.
Mr Challis said the bus shelters’ plate glass would take an extra strong person and a heavy instrument, such as a beer bottle, to break the glass. He said during the summer months there had been a noticeable increase in the number of rowdy groups in Elizabeth Bay Road late at night, particularly at weekends.
This vandalism was clearly fuelled by alcohol, Mr Challis said, and is another reason why Elizabeth Bay residents are strongly opposing a developing application (DA) for a late night Elizabeth Bay Road bar.
Hundreds of residents have already signed an objection to the DA.
“We would welcome a new restaurant in the area, but a bar with tables out on the footpath until 2am is completely unacceptable,’ he said.
‘Apart from the noise in the middle of a residential area, the late night license will simply mean more drunken customers creating disturbances in the surrounding streets.”
The Kings Cross and Potts Point Heritage Society has also condemned the vandalism.
‘The community of Elizabeth Bay is rightly outraged’, Society president Andrew Woodhouse said.
‘Bus shelters were smashed and trashed, leaving broken glass and debris spattered over a wide area: a public safety hazard for mothers with prams and the elderly, in a sensitive heritage conservation area,’ he said. ‘It’s ‘Kings Cross creep’ and it should be stopped.’
Mr Woodhouse believed allowing more bars in neighbouring suburbs to Kings Cross would add to the problems already experienced around Darlinghurst Road.
‘Kings Cross . . . has become a public toilet bowl and a no-go zone for residents,’ Mr Woodhouse said.
‘These activities should not be replicated in nearby suburbs.’
A City of Sydney Council spokesperson said the DA for a late night bar at 41 Elizabeth Bay Road has just come off public exhibition. More than 100 submissions were received.
“City of Sydney planners will now assess the application on its merits including how the proposal complies with Council’s new Late Night Trading Development Control Plan which aims to protect the amenity of existing residents in the surrounding area,’ she said.
The spokesperson said under the City of Sydney’s contract with JC Decaux, bus shelters in the City are cleaned, maintained and repaired by the external contractor at no cost to the City.
As a result of the vandalism on Good Friday night, residents are asking the Kings Cross police to arrange for regular police patrols of the loop during the night.