GORCC defends caravan park takeover

THE Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC) has defended its takeover of Anglesea’s caravan park more than six months ago, saying the resulting revenue is supporting projects not just in the town but along the coast.

GORCC’s decision last year to reject all tenders for what is now known as the Anglesea Family Caravan Park and decide to manage the park itself was highly criticised by community members, local businesses, the existing lessees and the state Coalition.

Speaking on Friday at the sod turning for the Anglesea boardwalk, located about 200 metres away from the caravan park, GORCC chief executive officer Richard Davies again defended the committee’s handling of the issue, which was found by an independent assessment to have met the state guidelines.

“The tenders we received were nowhere near the value of that land to the Crown and ourselves as owners of the land, so the board cancelled the tender process – there was no point pursuing it, the consultants said we’d be negligent if we did,” Mr Davies said.

He said the profits from GORCC operating the park (which it formally took over on July 1) would pay for the committee’s contribution to the boardwalk in 20 working days.

“The park’s given us a great opportunity to fund further environmental works we would have found difficult to do – iconic projects like this, plus also investing in the parks and maintaining assets.”

He said GORCC also had a local purchasing and local employment policy at the park, and was putting about $1 million through Anglesea’s economy.

“It’s been a good outcome for the park and campers generally, but the contribution that they probably don’t necessarily realise is that they’re helping to support our other core activity of coastal environment management.”

He said patronage at the caravan park had remained high.

“About 3,000 people stayed there last night, it’s full, it’s performing beautifully, it’s had about 2,000 people through activities – probably the same children 100 times – but nevertheless, it’s been a terrific first peak season for us.”

Last April, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said if the Coalition was returned to power, it would remove GORRC’s board and chief executive officer, re-open the tender process for the park and ban GORCC from being an applicant.