Around 140 Brunswick Heads residents – many of whom were ropeable – faced off the managers of the town’s three caravan parks over unwelcome expansion plans last Thursday evening at the Ocean Shores Country Club.
It lasted for well for over two hours. So did it achieve anything?
Not much other than perhaps ticking the box that the state government-run corporation, the NSW Coast Holiday Parks Trust (NSWCHPT), had fulfilled its requirement for ‘community engagement’ over its plans to develop the Terrace, Massey-Greene and Ferry Reserve.
With a lovely backdrop of the club’s commanding ocean views, a bureaucrat started the meeting by speaking so fast that his name was missed.
Mr Bureaucrat admitted early on that there was a ‘lot of negative feedback,’ and throughout the presentation he was asked by the audience to slow down, yet didn’t.
The NSWCHPT representatives – including CEO Steve Edmonds – were on the back foot the entire evening and their expansion plans were booed loudly.
‘Land grab!’ was shouted out on occasion.
Some of the biggest boos were over the plans for the Terrace park, where the Trust has subsumed a WWI memorial park (on Crown land) with cypress trees for camping/commercial purposes.
Sean O’Meara, who told the crowd he is a fourth-generation local, was cheered when he said there is no way you could lay plumbing down around the trees for built structures and still maintain the trees.
Another told the crowd that the trees were not planted by the RSL, but by the residents’ association just after WWI. Offically it is a remembrance, not a memorial, the crowd were told.
An interactive video demonstrating the Trust’s vision of the Terrace Park was also loudly booed as it contained nothing but drably designed high-density cabins.
But the NSWCHPT managers argued, ‘they are sustainably designed!’
Boundary issues
Over many, many years, the North Coast Holiday Parks Trust has been unable to produce boundary plans between the parks and public spaces to satisfy Council and the public.
It was a topic that took up a lot of time on the night.
While the Trust said there will be a 10-metre foreshore setback from creeks and rivers – allowing public access – members of the public challenged the validity of the boundaries themselves.
Retired Mullumbimby High School teacher Patricia Warren gave an account of why she considers it a ‘land grab,’ and was cheered.
Tricky deal
She told the crowd a tricky deal was done by a former Council staffer over park boundaries, which affects public foreshore access.
Later she told The Echo, ‘CEO Steve Edmonds stated that the operational boundaries were Council’s s68 Approved boundaries and these had been given to him by Council.
‘Those appear to be consistent with the licence issued under delegated authority by former staffer Jon Rusforth in 2007. They never went to Council.’
In August 2012, Council’s s68 Approval to Operate resolution 12-627 targeted the boundaries for the pending preparation of POM for the caravan parks. This was reaffirmed 3/237 of May 9, 2013.
‘On May 10, in goodwill, Council issued an interim licence to allow Massey-Greene and Terrace to continue to operate. [Former NSWCHP manager] Jim Bolger then took the interim licence and expired licence for Ferry Reserve caravan park, prepared the now-approved 2014 plans of management (POM) on those boundaries in full knowledge of the purpose of the August 2012 resolution and indeed the May 2013 resolution.
‘He presented to the newly formed board of NSWCHP the interim licence and boundaries for Ferry Reserve as Council’s agreed boundaries when in fact they were not.
‘It is gravely concerning that the Trust is now stating that these boundaries are still the operational boundaries of the caravan park and brings into question the credibility of whoever has been advising the Trust on this contentious issue.’
Ms Warren has asked for an explanation to explain ‘why the Trust ignores Council’s s68 Approval to Operate operational boundaries.’
A request for a copy of Thursday’s Trust presentation was not replied to.
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