BYRON BAY residents and business people are ‘crapped off’ by an ‘invasion’ of vanpackers who they say have set up an unofficial campsite on railway land in the centre of the town.
They say the travellers are taking advantage of a Catch 22 that prevents Byron Council rangers taking action against them in the car park adjacent to the Rails Hotel.
Local business owner Joy Barber Hua told Echonetdaily that ‘not only are the parking spaces for shoppers taken up by around 20 vans parked day and night but the campers are dumping rubbish and using the car park and surrounding business premises as a toilet.’
[xyz-ihs snippet=”Servo”]
Crapping next to van
‘Just this morning I was confronted by human excrement by our back door together with used toilet paper. Last week there was excrement in the car park where a camper had clearly just decided to toilet by the side of their van.’
This is despite the fact that an Exceloo automatic toilet operates 24 hours a day just metres away in Railway Park.
‘We call the council and they say that as it’s railway land its not “council jurisdiction”, Ms Barber Hua said.
But she added that when she calls the company responsible for managing railway land, ‘they say there’s nothing they can do and to write to the minister for transport’.
‘I’m guessing that will be a waste of time,’ she said.
Story by Echonetdaily
Read Echonetdaily’s full story here
Write to Andrew Constance Minister for transport. There are plenty of caraban parks in and around Byron that meet government legislation and guidelines. There is no reason they need to be in a car park in town.
I think for the small bit of problems that are caused . The overall gain for Byron ways compensates
Nothing new here. FINE them, move them on….will not take too long for the word to travel.
Unless the appropriate authorities are prepared to police and fine these cretins for their abhorrent behaviour….nothing will ever change. Rules (unless policed) are only for honest, decent law abiding people)