Linz, thanks for the post. Issues of importance to rate-payers in outlying areas don’t normally get up into mainstream media. Glamorgan Spring Bay Council General Manager, has quickly responded to the newsletter. Council it seems is as equally frustrated with the closure of the Raspins Beach Caravan Park, as it served a two-fold purpose of promoting local business and it played no small role in alleviating the pressures on demand for quality camping spots. For as long as I can recall Raspins Beach was chockers during the peak Tassie holiday season. Its sudden closure is not an issue that should be quietly negotiated with Council, but a public debate should ensue…and thanks to the Tasmanian Times, we may now elicit such comment from the main players. The General manager’s (David Medcalf) response to the ‘Orford Occasional’ was simple but resolute. That ‘Council agreed to allow campers to use the recreation ground…in an endeavour to encourage visitors to stay in the area and assist the town businesses…at this time I do not intend to change the access arrangements to the ground.”
Councillor Geoff Whitton has told me of his surprise at the response, that indeed the matter has only received cursory attention from full council and indeed no decision has been made. Also and alarmingly so, he informs me that National parks is about to stamp its unchallenged authority on Raspins Beach, by ripping up the power-supply infrastructure that serviced the many parking bays. The Orford Cricket ground has inferior infrastructure and is hardly fit for a well-attended game of cricket, let alone a defacto camping ground. The fight is on to re-open the Raspins Beach Camping Ground, the nucleus to a potential punch-up between residents of West Shelly Beach, Orford, the Council and National Parks. Through the Tasmanian Times let the debate begin.