Clarence Valley Council Mayor, Ray Smith is confident Council is acting in accordance with legislation concerning the impending eviction of 136 Holiday Caravan owners at four Council managed caravan parks.
Letters were sent in early March to Holiday Caravan owners at Iluka Riverside Holiday Park, Brooms Head Holiday Park, Minnie Water Holiday Park, and Wooli Holiday Park advising of the termination of long term (casual occupation) agreements from June 30, 2025.
Cr Smith told the CV Independent that the ramifications for Holiday Caravan owners from a motion passed at Councils March 20 ordinary meeting will still mean they face eviction on June 30, unless special circumstances are identified.
“The ramifications for Holiday Caravan owners will be that they will have to surrender their site within the 110 days’ notice given in the advice provided to them by Council,” he said.
“It means that they will have to move their vans, and any annexes that are attached to those vans.”
Council is unable to offer any financial compensation to the Holiday Caravan owners, Cr Smith said.
“There will be no actual compensation, but Council will be waiving any further fees from this date forward to the 30th of June,” he said.
“For any of the part that the van owners have paid in advance they will be reimbursed for those fees and reimbursed for any fees for utilities that have been paid in advance.
If a Holiday Van owner wishes to sell their caravan, Cr Smith said they would have to move it out of the Council managed park.
“What we have offered though, some people may have difficulty in removing their vans, so Council has offered to remove the vans on their behalf, and after the net cost of that procedure has been taken into account, if we sell the vans or whatever the outcome might be, any net profit will certainly be returned to the van owners,” he said.
“Van owners can sell their vans, but they just can’t keep them on that particular site.”
The move to evict Holiday Van owners is in accordance with legislation, Cr Smith said.
“We’re operating under the Holiday Vans Long Term Casual Occupation Act of 2002, and in terminating the Holiday Van agreements we are complying with both the Crown Lands Management Act 2016, and the Local Government Act 1993 for management of Crown Lands categorised community for general community use,” he said.
“The Crown Lands Management Act want to return these sites to general public use and Council is now implementing that legislation.
“It’s best practice.
“We are not being forced to do this by the State Government, but we are one of the very few Councils left in NSW that hasn’t implemented this best practice.
“It is specifically for Holiday Parks that are located on Crown Land…if the caravan parks were privately owned it could certainly be a different story.”
Cr Smith said he wasn’t aware of any timeline Council has to adhere to, so they comply with implementing the legislation.
“I don’t believe they’ve given Council a deadline, but it could come out of the blue because its legislation that we have to comply with and obviously they have been fairly lenient with the couple of Councils that have been still dragging their heels,” he said.
“Tweed Council and Clarence Valley Council would be the last 2 Councils on the North Coast to be implementing this process.”
Cr Smith said Council could be financially penalised by the NSW Government if they don’t comply with the legislation.
“There could be a penalty imposed, I’m not aware of the threat of any penalty at this stage, but obviously when Council’s don’t comply with State Government legislation there is always the risk of some sort of penalty,” he said.
This article appeared in Clarence Valley Independent, 2 April 2025.
