Shoalhaven City Council will next year renew its five-year contract with volunteer surf life saving clubs and, in the process, will review the length and extent of paid lifeguard services.

Shoalhaven City councillor Robert Miller has echoed on-going calls for the Mollymook surf patrol season to be extended and is pushing for council to provide a paid lifeguard at the beach until Easter.

“Mollymook is probably the major tourist beach in the Shoalhaven,” he said.

“There should be a lifeguard presence on the beach every day from November until Easter.

“As part of next year’s five-year review council needs to look at the cost of providing a lifeguard at south Mollymook Beach until the Easter holidays.

“Even if Mollymook is the only beach, we need to have at last one beach in the Shoalhaven open for the entire season.”

Cr Miller said Wollongong and Kiama councils have paid lifeguards patrolling beaches every day until Easter, while Shoalhaven provides the service daily for the six week Christmas holiday period and on weekends until April.

Shoalhaven’s surf club volunteer life savers are also on duty during the school holidays and weekends, but local beaches, including Mollymook, are left unpatrolled on weekdays outside peak periods, despite growing visitor numbers.

Cr Miller said if there’s a lifeguard on duty and flags erected on the beach, visitors will come.

“If people know it is safe to swim because there’s a lifeguard present and flags up, they’ll swim.

“With more and more people visiting outside peak tourist times, we have to provide this service.

“We invite people to come to our beaches, then don’t make an effort to keep them safe all year round.”

Cr Miller said council should be working to attract and keep tourists however it can.

“A paid lifeguard is a small price to pay for people to use Mollymook Beach.

“This sort of investment will help lift our tourist industry from a $650,000 per year to a billion dollars.”

Mollymook Surf Club president Rod Austin said there has been ongoing calls to extend the Mollymook lifeguard service.

Council’s commercial operations director Bill Paterson confirmed that a decision would be made when the lifeguard contract comes up for review next year.