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PORT PHILLIP CONSERVATION COUNCIL INC. |
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Tel 0395980554,
0429176725 |
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PPCC Inc. Policy Statement No. 16 Camping
and Caravan Use on Coastal Reserves and
Land Abutting Port Phillip SUMMARY: Further expansion
of the area of land permitted for camping
or caravanning, which inherently degrades
the natural values of the areas involved,
should not be permitted, and no new sites
should be developed on coastal reserves,
or land abutting Port Phillip, for camping
or caravanning. Proposals
to extend or intensify camping or
caravan parks on Port Phillip
coastal reserves and land abutting Port
Phillip conflict with PPCC Inc. Policy
Statements Nos. 5
and 7. DETAIL: Examples
of Existing Camping and Caravan Areas:
The
examples below provide a very large number
of sites.
Adverse
Consequences: Camping and
caravan use has unfortunately been
permitted on some coastal reserves for
many years, and that has had increasingly
undesirable and insidious consequences for
the natural values of those reserves.
Those consequences include building and
expansion of access roads, water supply,
power lines, lighting fixtures, sewage
disposal and toilet blocks, and car parks;
damage to and loss of indigenous
vegetation; and reduction in biodiversity,
all contributing to impairment of coastal
landscape and general public amenity. Caravan parks at
Leopold have also been allowed to be
established on certain freehold land that
abuts the high water mark of Port Phillip,
and that use, close to the edge of the
sea, has significantly impaired the
coastal landscape there. Future
Management: The demand for
camping and caravan use should be met
equitably by balloting for spaces. The
policing of behaviour and damage should
involve briefing, education and the
passing of a test of knowledge of rules
before each season’s use, similar to the
courses required for duck hunting, and
bonds and fines sufficient to provide for
a high standard of care and respect for
the sites, with offenders being banned for
appropriately long periods. Every opportunity
should be taken to reduce the area of
public land being used for camping and
caravanning, by rationalization of space,
and discontinuance of any unsewered,
redundant or uneconomic facilities.
Accurate centralized records of site use
should be maintained, and if a given
number of individual camp or caravan
spaces happen to be unused in a given year
the relevant area should be permanently
reduced and revegetated by that number of
the sites closest to the sea. ADOPTION: This PPCC Inc.
Policy Statement No. 16 was adopted by a
General Meeting of Port Phillip
Conservation Council Inc. on 21st October
2006. --------------------- |
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