Site holders seek termination of park lease

AROUND 70 attended a meeting of site holders from the NRMA Bright Holiday Park last week, where concerned caravanners were updated on an ongoing campaign to prevent the removal of annual sites at the park. Since July, when the park informed over 30 annual site holders that their leases would end this year, a group of site holders have spearheaded a campaign to stop the removal of sites, seeking details from the Alpine Shire Council and the Department of Environment, Energy and the Climate Action (DEECA) on the park’s management. Attendees met at the Bright RSL garden at around 12pm where RSL members served food and drinks, raising money for a planned garden upgrade. The site holders and their supporters later gathered in the RSL building, where campaigners David Fisher and Noel Mckay gave an update on their progress. According to Mr McKay, due to alleged breaches of the park’s lease over the past 5-10 years, the campers believe they can see the lease terminated, stopping the eviction of site holders. He said their solicitor is drafting a letter to send to the relevant ministers, the local council and DEECA that details these alleged breaches, with a request to terminate the lease. “We need to get rid of the NRMA running the caravan park,” he said at Saturday’s meeting. “It’s the only way we’re going to stop it.” Both Mr Mckay and Mr Fisher said a key alleged breach of the lease relates to increasing park fees and a lack of park maintenance. “On a Crown land caravan park, it's not supposed to be a money-making venture,” Mr McKay said. “Anything that you make off it is supposed to be spent on improving the Crown land caravan park.” The Alpine Observer reported last year that annual fees for sites have increased from $3780 in 2019 to $4881 in 2022, and the park was proposing to increase annual rates to $6108. “Fifty per cent increase in two years and there's nothing to show for it,” Mr Fisher said. “[For] everyone on our side of the caravan park the water wasn't working this morning.” Annual site holders have regularly submitted questions at monthly council meetings, querying park maintenance, the ratio of cabins to tents at the park, and the status of freedom of information requests. As the park is Crown land, the Alpine Shire Council is appointed as land manager of the park by the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action. A number of site holders have received offers to relocate their site within the park, but this is not without problems, according to one site holder. Kerrie Foreman is the fourth generation of her family who holidays at Bright NRMA Holiday Park and her father is known for playing the bagpipes there on New Year’s Day. She said she was lucky to receive a new site after entering a ballot, but for some site holders the footprints of the new sites are smaller than their current arrangement. Ms Foreman estimated she would have to remove her front veranda on the new plot, and is waiting for park management to mark out the boundary of the new site before she accepts it. NRMA Parks and Resorts were contacted but declined to comment. Last year, the company told the Alpine Observer that transitioning annual sites to short term accommodation would bring more visitors to the region. A spokesperson for the company said last October that they offered an extended transition period for the annual site holders, as well as a number of free nights at the park on powered caravan or camping sites and a 25 per cent discount for bookings on other sites at the Bright Park until September 2026. According to NRMA Parks and Resorts, NRMA Holiday Parks regularly engages with council to ensure ongoing compliance across the site and is fully compliant with maintenance obligations under the lease with council. They have said a number of upgrades are underway at the park, including to roads, camp kitchens, and amenity blocks as part of regular maintenance and improvement works. According to the company, the fee structure for annual sites was updated to allow up to eight guests, as part of annual fee increases in 2023. This was an increase from two primary guests where further fees were payable per additional guest. The Alpine Shire Council was contacted on Monday (a public holiday) but did not respond before deadline.

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