February 2011
FINGAL HOLIDAY PARK REDEVELOPMENT MAKES THE NEWS
ABC News Feb 27th
Response to the Mayor from Fingal Van Owners Committee
Mr Mayor - in response to your comments in the ABC and Channel Nine stories:
You mention community consultation. Which community was consulted? Neither the Fingal residents, Indigenous community, nor the Fingal van owners have been consulted.
You talk about "other people" being given the option to use that land. Your redevelopment plan states it will actually reduce the total number of operational sites in the park from 180 to 137, so in fact fewer people will have the option to use the land. Where is the equity in that?
The Mayor says some people have had "20 or 30 good years" in vans at the park. Many people only purchased their vans in the past 18 months, paying tens of thousands of dollars for them, when your business plan was obviously already progressing. In fact the last sale to go through was in October 2010, just one month before the plan was passed at a Council meeting.
The proposed increase in cabins from the current 12 to 26 is trying to create a glitzy Gold Coast-style park that simply doesn't belong in Fingal. Your plan is actually reducing the opportunity for the average Australian family to have an affordable camping/caravan holiday.
The Fingal Van Owners Committee looks forward to some real-life consultation in the near future.
Please read part of the Hansard transcript quoting The Member for Tweed Mr Neville Newell and The Minister for Land and Water Conservation, Mr Aquilina on the passing of the "Holiday Parks (Long-term Casual Occupation) Bill" in September 2002 and their thoughts on Long Term Casual holiday makers here.
Why have our elected officials changed their community values so much in nine short years- what is our society becoming?
Fingal Committee Formed
A group of long-term casual van owners at Fingal Holiday Park have formed a working committee to protest against this redevelopment, which is anticipated to begin in early 2012. To the best of our knowledge, Fingal ratepayers have not been consulted regarding these plans, despite their potential impact on the community.
Fingal our Home away from Home
Coastcare weeding at 8.00 am followed by the
next committee meeting Saturday 23rd April at 11.00am
The basis of our protest is as follows:
1. The Council’s business plan is not economically viable.
2. The forced removal of the long-term casual van owners will:
- impact on the local economy – particularly during the quieter months, when local businesses rely on regular income from long term van owners
- potentially reduce the number of qualified lifesavers for Fingal Beach as many long-term van owners have children who are members of the Fingal Rovers
- affect the economy of all the Tweed villages, as the plan is to remove most of the long-term casuals from all seven Council parks
- reduce the security and sense of community in the park
- increase traffic into Fingal - with the park totally reliant on overnight or short term customers, more vans would come and go
- potentially increase the environmental impact on the beach, dunes, endangered curlews, turtles and marine life. Long term van owners have always shown utmost respect for the Fingal environment and opening the park up to 100% seasonal tourists could mean more 4WDs on the beach and more damage.
3. The redevelopment could also have an impact on the Indigenous remains believed to be in the park, as the park sits adjacent to the Indigenous cemetery. (This is yet to be fomally assessed.)
Many of the Fingal van owners have been coming to Fingal for 20 years. They, along with the newer van owners, love and respect Fingal for the special place it is now and want to keep enjoying it as their “home away from home”.
We urge you, as Fingal residents to contact your Mayor, Councillors, State and Federal members to start asking the relevant questions. Why have you not been consulted?
Tweed Mayor Kev Skinner kskinner@tweed.nsw.gov.au
Justine Elliott, Federal MP Justine.Elliot.MP@aph.gov.au
Geoff Provest, State MP tweed@parliament.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Barry Longland (Deputy Mayor) blongland@tweed.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Dot Holdom dholdom@tweed.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Joan van Lieshout jvanlieshout@tweed.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Katie Milne kmilne@tweed.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Warren Polglase wpolglase@tweed.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Phil Youngblutt pyoungblutt@tweed.nsw.gov.au
You can contact the Fingal committee at fingalvanowners@gmail.com
LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO SAVE FINGAL.
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