This week will see Victoria’s Yarra Council consider a $250,000 effort to ban public drinking in Yarra parks during New Year’s Eve. The motion comes as part of a bid to stop another year of parties at the Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, which were trashed during NYE 2013.
As The Age reports, the booze ban proposal will be considered by Yarra Council on Tuesday evening, following the controversy that followed the last unsanctioned Edinburgh New Year’s Eve party, when about 15,000 party-goers stormed the gardens and left a $30,000 clean-up bill.
Amongst those reportedly in favour of an alcohol ban is Ambulance Victoria and Victoria Police, who claim up to 120 officers would be needed to control the area if there was another huge party. More than 20 people were injured at last year’s gathering, including one police officer.
Yarra mayor Jackie Fristacky said the council needed to “break the cycle and view of Edinburgh Gardens as a party place.” Yarra Council was heavily criticised following the last party for being under-prepared for the event, despite seeing similar scenes the year before.
Back in January, Jon Perring, co-owner of famous Melbourne venue The Tote, slammed the Council and the state government over what he saw as “a spectacular piece of policy failure,” saying last year’s NYE licensing freeze caused the trouble at the Edinburgh Gardens.
Socialist Party councillor Stephen Jolly said recently that efforts should instead go towards a better arranged party rather than a blanket alcohol ban. “We’re going from irresponsible, free-range non-management to dictatorial over-management,” he said. “They are talking about the young people in our area like they are al-Qaeda. These are people like my kids they are talking about,” he said.
The Melbourne Leader reports that a group calling themselves La Resistance will be holding a Fight For Your Right To Party fundraiser at Melbourne’s Laundry Bar, with all cover charge profits going towards lobbying the Yarra Council against the strict restrictions they are considering.
The group is led by local music-lover and businessman David Trimboli, who told the Leader that he would like to see “effective management by council to protect the park and people, while protecting the fundamentals such as free entry, local music and BYO alcohol.”
