The meeting with Murray River councillors about the future of Mathoura’s Liston Caravan Park turned out to be “very productive” for all involved, according to park permanent site holder Ian Berry.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The meeting went for just over an hour and attracted more than 40 people, including site holders, councillors and community members.
Tom Weyrich and John Harvie were the only councillors to attend the meeting.
The meeting came after 25 permanent site holders at the council-owned park were last week given notice to vacate.
Mr Berry was “a bit disappointed that more councillors couldn't attend”, but he still thought the meeting was beneficial.
Cr Harvie agreed with Mr Berry.
“The meeting gave me the opportunity to explain in detail to the annual tenants and community members about why council has taken this action,” he said.
“It was also a great opportunity for the tenants to ask questions of me.”
A number of local community members and business owners were there to show their support.
“Quite a few residents from town came down that we weren't expecting,” Mr Berry said.
“One man is a former dentist who lives opposite the park. He spoke at length about the topic. He has been having sleepless nights thinking that we're all going to be kicked out.
“He’s worried because he reckons that we're good for business, we’re good for the town and he likes having us close by.”
At the meeting, the site holders were able to put forward some of their proposals to the councillors.
One suggestion was that permanent site holders kept their permanent dwellings where they currently were while upgrades were made to the park around them.
“The main thing is that if they accept this, we don't want to have to take our vans, store them somewhere and then bring them back again later, because it's just too hard,” Mr Berry said.
“The caravans are permanently based there. They can't be moved. It would be too difficult.
“Even if they had to close the park down for two or three months, we don't mind, as long as we don't have to move our sites away.”
Mr Berry said a few of the sites were owned by elderly people, for whom it would be difficult to pack everything up and transport it back again.
“There's one lady, she's 81 years old. How is she meant to pull her caravan down, store it and then bring it back?” he said.
Mr Berry said if they were permitted to keep their caravans on site, permanent site holders were willing to commit to an inspection of the park and subsequently fix up any of the dwellings considered non-compliant by council.
The site holders also suggested the option of self-managing the park.
“We've come up with the solution that we could self-manage. There's one guy that's recently retired who is willing to look after the place three days a week,” Mr Berry said.
“We're willing to buy him a ride-on mower and he can regularly look after the toilet block.
“That's just one option, but I don't know if they want that or not.”
Mr Berry said the site holders were determined to resolve the issue with council.
“We've even agreed that if the facilities are better, then we're happy to pay extra fees,” he said.
“We're not against the idea to upgrade the park, and we're willing to pay that little bit extra for that.”
Mr Berry said council had agreed to allow site holders to do a walk around with some tradesmen “to come up with a solution for the park”.
“We’ve agreed that a team from Murray River Council, including a building surveyor, a representative of our asset manager, and myself, will go back to Liston Caravan Park and do a thorough walk-through to see if there’s any way that we can undertake the work without everyone having to move out,” Cr Harvie said.
Mr Berry is concerned the decision to vacate the permanent site holders may already be affecting contributions to town revenue.
“Two people have already moved on,” he said.
“One guy bought a place in Deniliquin and he's already starting to pack up his belongings and take them up there. Another couple are also leaving.
“There's two people we've lost already. That's not good.”
Mr Berry fears that if people are forced out of the park, they may never return.
He said all the site holders were appreciative of the local townspeople who came out in support.
“We're grateful for the support from all the local people that turned out and I just hope that common sense will prevail,” he said.
Mr Berry said the permanent site holders at the park had formed a sub-committee the day before the meeting.
“We said to the councillors that we're not fighting against you, we want to work hand in glove with you, but we'd like a little bit coming back our way as well,” he said.
“John Harvie actually thanked us for the way we conducted the meeting and everything. He said that he's quite happy to come down and talk to us at any time.”
Mr Berry feels optimistic about the support received from the councillors at the meeting.
“John Harvie indicated to us that the councillors are willing to listen to our proposals,” he said.
“They heard us, they listened to us, and I think they thought that what we were proposing was quite acceptable.”
In terms of what’s next for the future of the park, Mr Harvie said council would “certainly look to see if we can work with the tenants”.
There will be a meeting in two weeks’ time at Moulamein.
“We'll know more after the meeting at Moulamein, but there is also going to be another meeting at Mathoura in a month’s time which we've asked if we can attend as a representative from the park,” Mr Berry said.