APARTHEID PROPOSED FOR CRONULLA BEACHES

A meeting of community leaders has resulted in a proposal that Cronulla's beaches be divided into sections:

Sunbathers, soccer players and surfers could each be allocated an area on the southern Sydney beach to reduce the chance of arguments and conflict over who controls the sand.

Muslim and Lebanese "marshalls" and elders might also be sent from the western suburbs to patrol the area and sanction troublemaking young men visiting the beach.

"The Mayor and Mr Baird have been looking at dividing beaches into areas for sport or for sunbaking or whatever," MacPherson said. "It's very early days but these are ways of avoiding confrontations on the beach."

Nada Roude, spokeswoman for the Islamic Council of NSW, said: "It's just better management. If we can get a grip on what are the factors that have led to these unfortunate events ... then I think we are better able to understand which solutions will bring people to harmony."

If the violence is racially motivated as so many have claimed, this isn't going to help. Maybe it would be more appropriate to have "taunting" and "no taunting" sections.