The park areas are left as they are, with no additional cleaning services, no specific traffic management, and no security.

Benefits:

• No substantial costs to Council on the day
• Free and unencumbered access to all in and around Bronte Park including local residents
• No changes to ’business as usual’ arrangements and no additional requirements for locals and visitors to the area

Considerations:

• A strong likelihood of disorder, requiring reactive action
• Heightened risk of safety issues
• Significant waste issues
• Risk of damage to infrastructure/assets in the park and surrounding areas
• Negative impact to traffic for local residents

This option is to provide the same level of park management provided in 2024. This included additional resources at Council cost for crowd management, public amenity cleaning, waste management, traffic and transport.

This option helps reduce impacts on the surrounding area and provides a level of safety to the public within the park and around the immediate area. All additional measures are at cost to Council including police, additional buses, security and traffic control.

Benefits:

• Provision of additional toilet facilities
• Marked access for pedestrians within the park
• Security presence
• Police to manage crowd behaviour and monitor risks and potential incidents
• One-way traffic control for Bronte Road access
• Additional bus services to facilitate improved entry/exit to the parklands
• Additional Council cleaning service crews to remove waste and conduct clean up

Considerations:

• Cost to Council in 2024 was approximately $100,000 including staff time
• Service level in 2024 was insufficient to satisfactorily address resident amenity and waste issues

This option provides a higher level of management in relation to transport options, toilet facilities, cleaning and security than what was provided for Christmas Day in 2024. This option would potentially see a significant reduction to risks and various impacts by increasing the number of services provided and infrastructure in place to manage large crowd numbers, accessibility, safety and cleaning measures.

Benefits:

• Increase in security numbers will enable improved management of pathways. This will improve crowd safety and facilitate identification and management of high-risk anti-social behaviour
• Additional provision of Police officers for a longer duration
• Greater police and security presence, as well as the addition of checkpoints would help enforce a No Alcohol Zone, and limit / eliminate glass in the park
• Increased ability to try and limit crowd size to maintain safety and order by utilising greater Police and security presence
• Enhanced traffic management / control, particularly for the management of ride share vehicles
• Provision of more additional buses to assist with transporting visitors back to Bondi Junction and reducing impact on local streets for those unable to access transport.
• Engagement of a contract professional/event cleaning service to work during the event and overnight to ensure that the park is clear of rubbish before sunrise, especially glass
• Provision of dedicated water stations for sufficient crowd hydration
• A dedicated emergency services area with improved access provisions
• Provided there is adequate resourcing, facilitating the gathering largely ‘as is’ would improve public safety and amenity, and significantly reduce impacts
• Greater restrictions and supervision may deter increased numbers of visitors

Considerations:

• Cost to Council would be increased - approximately $220,000 including staff time

This option involves erecting a fence around Bronte Park, Bronte Gully and Bronte Beach. The fence line would need to be approximately one kilometre in length. The fenced perimeter would require security management (eg: security guards), entry staff and Police to mitigate the likelihood of fence jumping.

This would be an alcohol-free event. There would be no allowance to purchase or bring in alcohol within the fenced area.

To manage access to the park and beach the fenced area would need to be ticketed, at a cost, for visitors and locals.

Benefits:

• Offers a monitored, controlled location for maximum security and management of park users for Christmas Day celebrations
• Has potential to change the annual status quo and break an ongoing cycle relating to usage across Christmas

Considerations:

• There would be costs to Council of at least $360,000 including $90,000 for fencing infrastructure, $220,000 as outlined in Option 3 and additional security and staff costs for operating ticketed event. Securing the perimeter could be difficult with a strong risk of disorderly behaviour at the fence line including a risk of the fence being pushed over
• There is a high likelihood that the unofficial event takes place at another local beach, with Council not recouping costs, with no event infrastructure from Council at the new location e.g. Bondi Beach
• There is the potential if the event moves there would be the need for Council to then invest in the same infrastructure at all three Waverley beaches
• Non-paying people, including locals, would be excluded from the beach and the entirety of the park all day
• The beach and the top section of the park would also need to be fenced as crowds would simply migrate to those areas otherwise
• There would be an impact in the lead up to Christmas Day and following for the set up and pack down of the infrastructure

• Crown Land Management Act (NSW) issues with fencing the entirety of the park and excluding people:
  The park could be fenced for an ‘event’ and thus satisfy Crown Land Management Act (NSW) requirements. But this would amplify the questions/issues of what happens at and outside the fence line and in the areas beyond