The Balmoral Burn appears to have become the Balmoral churn, after thousands of dollars worth of damage was done to the Balmoral beach foreshore in preparation for Sunday’s race up and a “silvertail” dinner which is being held in a massive tent erected on the sand.
This is not the first time that the Humpty Dumpty Foundation has found themselves in strife with local Mosman residents.
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In 2009 the charity organisation and Mosman Council forked out thousands of dollars to repair damage to the foreshore parks, after trucks delivering material for a night time Beach Party churned up grass and plants when erecting a giant marquee on Balmoral Beach.
This year the damage is extensive due in part to the recent rains say organisers.
According to Paul Francis the Executive Chairman of the Humpty Dumpty Foundation the “Silvertail” dinner is an important event that raises money for charity.
When asked about the collateral damage left behind by the event he said “We raise thousands of dollars for charity in the past we have contributed to the repairs of the foreshore. Mosman Council has also contributed and they have been extremely helpful”.
When asked why trades were allowed to drive their trucks across wet parks when a wide path was available for access he said.
“We have event management on site that is supposed to manage this”.
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Kathleen Jackson a mother of two children said “This is disguising. It is not the first time that the park has been destroyed by the Humpty Dumpty Foundation they did it in 2008 and 2009. Now they have spread themselves across three areas of the foreshore.”
“I come here every few days with my children and because of the mess we will be unable to use the park. Mosman Council need to take control of what is happening on their property”.
Gillian Parkes said “This is environmental vandalism of the worst kind. The Humpty Dumpty Foundation know what they are doing and it is clear that they don’t care or else they would put into place procedures to prevent the damage occurring”.
She added “All they want to do is use a prime location to run their event and then disappear for another year leaving the cleanup to Mosman Council. They did it last year and the damage took months to repair. All they do is throw some bark on the damaged areas in the hope that the damage is hidden the problem is that the bark gets blown away and large slabs of damaged park is exposed to hundreds of people who use the park area”.
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Officials from Mosman Council did not return our calls.
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