Wagga City Council will be faced with a choice tonight: let commonsense prevail or capitulate to outspoken caravan park owners and heavy-handed bureaucrats.
The issue in question is Wilks Park and whether council should move to restrict the free camping which has been allowed at the site since 1888.
It’s been a sore point in recent time as a mixture of land zoning and lease rights complicated the matter and effectively rendered council powerless over campers.
But impotence is feared by government just as governments are feared by the free.
And now moves are under way to get around the problem and put council in a position to govern Wilks Park.
A report will go to tonight’s Commercial and Economic Development standing committee which includes the following recommendations:
Self-con tained travellers be limited to a 72-hour stay, or risk a fine; limiting the number of self-contained travellers; placing conditions on rubbish dumping; and not allowing “inappropriate users” to camp on site.
To achieve this council has been making deals with relevant government and private bodies to ensure it has control of the land.
You would think the caravan park owners in the city would rejoice at the proposal as they have long complained that the free site is harming their business.
Instead, Big4 Holiday Park manager Jeff Simons criticised the plan, believing he is being “undermined by council who feels it’s OK to operate a free camping site in the middle of town”.
In the face of such protest it would be easy for councillors to tighten the screws on campers in an attempt to please park managers.
What they ought to do is have the courage to do nothing and not rush to fix something which isn’t broken.
This notion that by restricting free camping you will have the same travellers stay in paid parks is misguided.
The very reason people come to Wilks Park, and not other areas, is because it’s free.
Moreover, many now have self-contained motorhomes replete with solar panels which allow them to be entirely self-sufficient. There really is nothing a caravan park can offer them.
The other criticism you will hear is that Wilks Park can become unsightly when “inappropriate users” overstay their welcome.
Though what exactly constitutes “inappropriate” and how council can act on this would be tricky to formulate a policy around.
In recent years there appears to be very little anecdotal evidence to give weight to the fear a shanty town will take over, and in the rare instances where a camper has become messy the issue has been resolved by the self-regulating users of the site.
The sheer amount of work that has gone into this report to be voted on by council tonight means it will almost definitely be passed.
So the campers who tonight call Wilks Park home can only hope that some find a voice and have the fortitude to do nothing.
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