GERROA ROCKED BY ARSON…

Gerroas wild long weekend

What concerns us is that you have a drunken naked teenager driving a vehicle with six drunken mates yahooing in the back while someone is hanging on and grass skiing on a public reserve ...

James Doak

Gerroa Community Association President

Gerroa Community Association president James Doak at the now charred steps to Little Beach after it was destroyed by vandals.

CONCERNED Gerroa residents are fuming at what they say were a lack of police resources in the municipality over the long weekend after a drunken gang of teenagers ran riot throughout the seaside village.

Gerroa residents claim six plastic bins were placed on the wooden stairway to Little Beach and set alight destroying the steps and incinerating an adjacent paddock.

There were also reports of youths racing cars along the small public reserve atop of Gerroa Headland behind Stafford Street, while residents have also accused the teenagers of public nudity and noise pollution.

CONCERNED Gerroa residents are fuming at what they say were a lack of police resources in the municipality over the long weekend after a drunken gang of teenagers ran riot throughout the seaside village.

Gerroa residents claim six plastic bins were placed on the wooden stairway to Little Beach and set alight destroying the steps and incinerating an adjacent paddock.

There were also reports of youths racing cars along the small public reserve atop of Gerroa Headland behind Stafford Street, while residents have also accused the teenagers of public nudity and noise pollution.

It was a real riot here over the weekend, President of the Gerroa Community Association James Doak said.

When the kids were racing along the top of the headland with a ute full of drunks with a bloke grass surfing on the back of a bodyboard, I thought we would lose one.

One car nearly went off the edge, he lost control and they had to pull it back over. We could easily have had an incident where someone was killed or a member of the public hurt by these drunk drivers.

Mr Doak said he and his fellow community association members were upset at what they perceived as a lack of police resources allocated to the area over the long weekend.

I received calls from half a dozen people who said they had called the police over the weekend and we only saw our first policeman Monday morning when it was all over, he said.

I understand they are very busy and I know the police do a great job and do what they can but they need more resources. If we had more police resources available this could have been avoided.

What concerns us is that you have a drunken naked teenager driving a vehicle with six drunken mates yahooing in the back while someone is hanging on and grass skiing on a public reserve and you cannot get someone out.

Despite Mr Doaks claims that up to six people registered their concerns with police several times over the long weekend, Chief Inspector Bob Noble from Lake Illawarra Police Command said police had only received two calls and responded to both of them.

We received a call about a group of people causing a disturbance at the bottom of Bourke Street and we responded to that, spending around an hour taking details at the scene, he said. We also responded to a call on Monday in regard to the damaged stairs.