Darren Coyne
The Ballina Shire Council will meet behind closed doors tomorrow to discuss its next move in an ongoing stoush with the Seabreeze Holiday Park at South Ballina.
The Echonetdaily reported last month that residents of the South Ballina caravan park had received eviction notices after the park owner was threatened with a possible million-dollar fine.
Owner Glen Wright said he had no choice but to close the park after receiving a ‘show cause’ letter from Ballina shire council relating to him not upgrading the park’s sewerage system.
Mr Wright said another condition imposed by the council – after he had beaten the council in a court matter last August – was that he had to upgrade the park’s bore water supply to drinking water standard.
‘The one thing we can never be compliant with is bringing the bore water up to drinking water standards,’ he said.
‘Because of the salinity of the water it would require a desalination plant and it’s not economic to do that,’ he said.
He has since lodged freedom of information requests with the council to find out whether other caravan parks in Ballina shire that use bore water had similar conditions imposed on their operating licences.
‘I very much doubt they have and I believe the reason they have ordered us to do it is payback for beating them in the court matter,’ he said.
Mr Wright said he intended closing the park prior to Christmas next year after all residents had been given eviction notices.
He said only two of the residents had been on leases requiring 12 months notice, while others would be given 60 days notice next year.
Mr Wright said he had attempted to sell the park but nobody was interested because the council had refused to supply him with a written list of the requirements for an unconditional licence to operate.
The Echonetdaily contacted the council to ask whether other parks had such a requirement but general manager Paul Hickey refused to answer questions on the subject.
His assistant told Echonetdaily he was not ‘not taking calls on the matter’.