Cr Deb Gilkison - Mt Somers Campground

The Mt Somers Reserve Board has proposed scaling back the Mt Somers Domain Campground to a self-contained only site. A public meeting was held Wednesday night. Cr Deb was there and shared with Luke how it went. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This has got the foothills locals talking. The Guardian has
revealed a proposal by council to peelback the Mountain Summer's
Domain campgrounds to a self contained site only. A public
for meeting was held last night. Western Ward councilor Deb
Gilkison was there Morning Good Morning talk us through the proposal.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
So the proposal that was put out by the Reserve
Board is to changing the camping from the way that
it is. But at the moment, anyone can camp there.
There's powered sites and showers and stuff, and so the
change is really just to take away the powered option,
make it just pay as you go, so there's not
a person manning it and there won't be showers or

(00:39):
a kitchen, so people can still camp there. Anyone can
camp there, It'll just be the facilities that are not
there anymore.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Well, why the change? I know, every time I drive
past there always seems like there's people in there. Is
it not paying its own way?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, it really hasn't been financially stable for a few years.
It's been something that the Reserve Board have really been
struggling with. And yeah, ultimately it's also a lot of
work for the numbers that actually come through.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Local Rowena Finlay, who's mentioned in this article, reckons that
the community only found out by word of mouth on
Sunday and they've only got ten days to submit on
the proposal. It does feel awfully rushed.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, I think the hard thing here is an employee involved,
and we've tried to make it really clear cut and
to make it because you've got to understand when there's
somebody involved, you can't drag this out. If your job
is on the line for month, then that's not okay
in my books. So we have had to draw a
line in the sand that submissions are on the or

(01:42):
don't quote me on the date, but it's Wednesday week
and yeah, that's what we've had to do is try
and help the employee process.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
What was the read of the room last night.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Do you know what? I think that everyone at the
end of the day, they're passionate about Mount Summers and
there was a few key themes coming through. One of
them was, you know, the rush and the we didn't
know and do you know what, we take full of
responsibility for that. That's unfortunate that people weren't you know,
if they didn't know right at the time, but we're
actually not trying to hide anything, and so really it's

(02:15):
about keeping it positive and saying, okay, well, if change
does have to happen, what does it look like. So
we had a few key issues or like I guess,
constructive things coming through in terms of well, maybe we
could keep the power on, that would be okay, we're
on long weekends. We could open it up for long
weekends and the busy times. So we're not opposed to that.

(02:36):
The submission process is open. So yeah, we'll just see
what kind of comes through. And I think, I mean
the key thing is we've heard the community loud and
clear that they care about the campsite.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Is it worth submitting? You know sometimes Deev, you sort
of get the impression that things people have already made
up their mind on these things.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, I mean, it's always worth submission, because if you
don't say anything, then how does anyone know?

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yeah, it's that's fair. I guess. The other concern I
don't know if there's any substance to it, but word
is that there's another campground in Mount Summers and that
lease could be up for renewal in a couple of
months time too, So we could go from two to
essentially none ment in the village. Is there the opportunity
for somebody to maybe take this on privately or yeah,

(03:24):
like our door.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Is open if somebody looks at that and goes, well, actually,
the opportunity here is that there's not competition one hundred
meters away. One of the things that I heard last
night as well is that the prices in Mount Summers
the cheap, so maybe if there's less you could actually
put your prices up and become a little bit more profitable.
But again it's not my business, so it's not my
place to say, but I think that there is some

(03:46):
opportunity for someone to come into that campground and if
they want that extra revenue on especially on the long weekends,
because that's when it really will make a difference.