NEWS DESK
Camping discounts end after ‘strategic’ success DISCOUNT packages at some Mornington Peninsula foreshore camping grounds have been withdrawn because of their success. The mayor Cr David Gill said the cheaper packages for pre-and post-peak times were designed to “activate” Rye and Sorrento. “This activation has occurred and, to ensure both new and return campers have equal access to camping sites along the foreshore, [the discounts] have been discontinued,” he said. “For income reasons other discounts have continued in areas [such as Rosebud] that have lesser off-peak occupancy rates.” The mayor’s comments follow complaints from regular campers at Rye and Sorrento that they are being hit with site fee increases for next season while campers at Rosebud are not. (“Fee hikes make for unhappy campers” The News 10/7/19). Many families, some camping for long stays at
Rye over more than 50 years, feel they are being discriminated against by a restructuring of the fees and removal of before-and-after peak season packages. They say the fee restructure by the council equates to a 50 per cent increase. The mayor said the council was spending $7 million on the foreshore “with many improvements under way”. He said the council’s 201920 capital works budget included $550,000 for “reconfiguration works” of the Rye camping sites which will include power, water and fire service upgrades. But long-time camper Lee Conway said the capital works project would force many campers out of the Rye East camping ground. “Council is asking those campers to help fund a capital works project via increased fees for improvements which will not benefit them. How is this reasonable?” Mr Conway queried whether the council had
a strategy to “attract new campers based on increasing fees to a level where it is no longer affordable for many families to return”. “Is this how they want to turn over visitors?” he asked. “Do they prefer to attract people for short-term stays because they are slugging the repeat customers and making it unviable for families to stay for longer periods? “What is their strategy to manage a potential downturn in tourism numbers and income in the quieter pre-season and post-season periods? “Do they prefer that during October and November that these sites attract an influx of ‘schoolies’?” Mr Conway said a line item on page 57 of the council’s 2019-20 budget reading: “Foreshore camping fees off season – pre-package (return campers all locations) $300” had been dismissed
by shire officers as an “administrative error” when he queried it. “That would only be a $700 saving, but it might be the difference between someone going camping and not,” he said. The shire’s property and strategy manager Nathan Kearsley said the line was a “typo error” which should have read: All Rosebud locations. He said the cost of providing foreshore camping across Sorrento, Rye and Rosebud had a breakeven budgeted income this financial year of $3.25 million. “The overall net cost of maintaining foreshore reserves across the peninsula is in the vicinity of $7 million per annum,” he said. Cr Gill said discounted camping packages were still available for camping sites at Rosebud. “There has been no change to any of the off-peak weekly rates,” he said.
No time to waste in nurdle fight Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au A ST ANDREWS’ woman is on a mission to rid the beaches of tiny plastic waste particles called nurdles. Lyn Wedd said the minute pellets were washing down drains, over the beaches of Port Phillip and through the Heads and around to St Andrews ocean beach, near Rye. She wants to inspire the possibly uninformed plastics manufacturers and handlers of the nurdles to “clean up their act”. “To date, they’ve been getting away with it but, hopefully, new legislation will make them more accountable,” she said last week while cleaning a section of Mt Eliza’s foreshore at Canadian Bay. “We need legislation to stop nurdles. They’d fine me if I threw a water bottle into the sea, but plastics manufacturers can wash the raw pellets down drains and nothing happens to them. “And this is despite plastic being listed as a threat to our waterways in the state government’s environment protection policy.” Ms Wedd had a “lightbulb moment” five years ago when resting on the sand at a Mt Eliza beach. “The sun was shining on these gleaming little particles, which I initially thought were jewels,” she said. “I scooped up a handful and realised they were plastic.” The pollutants are now five years further into their march to colonise the environment – with experts
Beach cleaner: Lyn Wedd at Mt Eliza confronting a problem affecting beaches in and outside Port Phillip – tiny plastic waste particles known as nurdles. Picture: Gary Sissons
claiming plastic particles have entered every part of our food chain and even our bodies. A recent European study found the highest plastic concentrations in animals were in the gut, with the smallest micro-plastic particles capable of entering our blood streams, lymphatic systems and even our livers.
When Ms Wedd chanced on nurdle concentrations at St Andrews beach she contacted Port Phillip Baykeeper Neil Blake who exclaimed: “Please don’t tell me they are at your beach? That means they have escaped Port Phillip. It’s getting worse and worse.” When Ms Wedd visited Phillip Island with her surfer husband Brendan
she found similar concentrations there. “The beach was littered with them,” she said. “I thought: ‘That’s it, we must get [state government] legislation to get rid of them.” EPA southern metropolitan region environment protection officer Erin Carmelito said the plastic pellets were
defined as “waste” under the Environment Protection Act 1970 which “must be managed appropriately”. “Plastics manufacturers do, in fact, have the same obligations under the act as all commercial and industrial business,” she said. “The EPA requires businesses that produce, transport or use nurdles to keep them contained and under control; away from water and wind; and away from stormwater drains.” Pellets not properly managed and discharged into the environment can lead to charges of illegal dumping of industrial waste or creating an environmental hazard. New laws coming into effect on 1 July 2020 will give the EPA powers to require businesses to act before pollution occurs, rather than addressing harm after the fact, Ms Carmelito said. They must have measures in place to prevent waste being discharged, such as waste management plans, training, equipment maintenance, and spill capture and response. To report the washing waste of any sort into stormwater drains email the EPA or call 1300 372 842.
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wholemedicine.com.au Southern Peninsula News
17 July 2019
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