Council’s parks under fire

THE Yanakie and Long Jetty caravan parks were completely booked out for the Christmas-New Year period, but some campers were unhappy with their stay.

Marianne Currey from Melbourne stayed in a cabin at the Yanakie Caravan Park over the New Year period with her family.

She said the visit was marred by a few issues, including poor communication, loud neighbours, rubbish and poor management.

“Up until my arrival, I wasn’t really sure that we would have a bed to sleep in that night,” she said.

Ms Currey said the office/store was repeatedly not open during the advertised times.

“Management was unseen and unavailable when needed,” she said.

South Gippsland Shire Council manager economic development, tourism and customer service Danny McDonald said the park receive a large number of calls in the lead up to the summer peak period.

“The team endeavoured to respond to all enquiries as quickly as possible but this may have be the following day if the park was heavily booked,” he said.

“We are always reviewing our service performance and looking for better ways to maximise the limited resources we have available.”

Mr McDonald said team members often needed to leave the office to attend to a customer request in the park.

“When the office is unattended, there is a contact phone number for any enquiries that cannot wait until the team member returns,” he said.

Ms Currey said on several nights, noise at the park was out of hand.

“I understood the campground had a no noise after 10pm policy, but this was not enforced or policed in any tangible way,” she said.

“Yanakie Caravan Park has always been family friendly but this was no longer the case. We had to endure noise, foul language and noise after 10pm on several occasions.

“We felt unsafe, insecure and unable to directly approach the group ourselves.”

Mr McDonald said the park does have a policy of noise reduction after 10pm however it was relaxed on New Year’s Eve due to the occasion.

“Over the holiday period, the team responded to a handful of complaints of loud and unsociable behaviour which were addressed,” he said.

“We understand fireworks may have been set off in the vicinity of the park on New Year’s Eve. Any information would be referred to police as per the usual process.”

Ms Currey said rubbish at the park was also a problem, with some bins left to the point of overflowing on several occasions.

“Rubbish was blowing into the car park, around the camp ground and worst of all into Corner Inlet,” she said.

Mr McDonald said the team conducted daily checks, however at times during the peak season the bins can become full. “Council’s waste disposal contractor attends weekly during this period and twice weekly during the Christmas and New Year’s week,” he said.

There are currently around 65 annual site holders at Yanakie and 48 at Long Jetty.

Mr McDonald said while some annual site holders decided to leave during the financial year, some new annual and seasonal customers have arrived and there has been an increase in overnight stay revenue.

“Given these changes are ongoing, council will be in a better position to assess the overall impact on operating results at the end of the financial year,” he said.

“Council is currently in the process of having site layout plans developed for each park. Part of this process will be to consider the most appropriate mix of product types moving forward.”

Fun times: from left, Abbey Barrett, Zoe Hendriks and Jai Hendriks all from Melbourne are regulars at the Yanakie Caravan Park, as their parents are annual permit holders.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Jan 19 2016. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry