Sunshine Coast News has been flooded with letters following our story last week about caravans and other recreational vehicles being parked long-term on suburban streets.
On Saturday we published some of these letters but we have received so many more since then that we have decided to run a special Your Say today.
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb for accountability, credibility and transparency. Preference will be give to letters of 100 words or less.
Debbie Bennetts, Pelican Waters: We have a complex with over 100 units and villas across the street. They do not incorporate large vehicle storage, therefore our street has turned into a storage area and become a one-vehicle thoroughfare. There have been car accidents with vehicles coming and going from the multiple entrances. Neighbours can do nothing but wish it away.
Above is an image of our lovely street Millennium Circuit in Pelican Waters, when the neighbours had to park on the verge/footpath to try to allow traffic flow. A few days of these vehicles parking would be tolerable but years of parking and hardly moving is ridiculous. They can afford the luxury vehicles so surely they can afford storage. We have a very large contingent of unhappy residents who don’t know where to go or how to solve the problem.
David Allinson, Mooloolah Valley: I think the council is passing the buck. They simply need to remove them. With the new approved housing plan permitting triplexes and more condensed housing, and the affordability and living crisis forcing multiple people to live in one dwelling with multiple cars, there is no room on the sometimes-narrow streets for caravans, trailers, boats and unregistered cars, especially with the massive increase since Covid. This congestion is very much an added danger while driving, sometimes obscuring animals or children running into the road and vehicles entering from driveways. And don’t get me started about e-scooters zipping onto the road.
These above mentioned vehicles need to either be contained on properties or held in a storage area. Council are quick to fine you if you park on the nature strip due to no parking available in the street because of these vans, trailers and boats. Just go for a drive around Maroochy Waters at night, especially the unit complexes. This needs to be acted on.
Diane Robinson, Golden Beach: People are okay if it’s short term – i.e. just back from holidays or getting ready to leave – but the long storage of vans on streets is dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed, no exception. It’s now getting out of hand, with restricted vision when reversing from driveways, restricted vision at intersections and stopping the flow of emergency vehicles on the narrow streets. Many streets, for instance, are so narrow a van on either side would not allow any vehicles through, let alone emergency ones.
Caravans of any width, boats and trailers should not be permitted to be stored long-term on any street or road. It’s happening everywhere and far too often on the Coast and getting out of hand there’s so many. It’s increasing day by day and needs fixing. I just hope a life is not lost because of no-one taking any action.
Jan Venables, Sippy Downs: I can understand people who live on small blocks looking for parking for their caravans, trailers etc. The council should make it illegal to park on roadside, but in so doing, it needs to provide parking areas in each suburb for these vehicles to be parked. This could have a charge to park.
Bea Gallagher, Wurtulla: I cannot believe that councils think it’s okay for people to park caravans and trailers. Pay fees at a park like normal people. The road is for cars to drive on and park cars on short-term. It’s disruptive, ugly and mostly inconvenient for property owners in the street. Property owners can’t have visitors park their cars. On a lot of streets, beach visitors have nowhere to park thanks to these bludgers. Councils must act.
N. Coulter, Mooloolaba: It’s funny how someone from Brisbane would have the gall to think it’s okay for people to leave all their toys in the street when it’s not their principal place of residence. People should be made to put their extra stuff in their own backyard or storage. The council are too weak to bother doing anything about it.
Tony Dennis: Most of these so-called illegally parked caravans are in fact legal if they are 7.5m in length or less and under four tonnes in weight and are registered. Council knows there’s bugger all they can do about it. But in saying that, common sense should prevail not to block views from driveways or blind corners etc.
Deborah Lovelock, Noosaville: My view is the state government needs to change legislation to prevent people storing their vehicles such as cars, boats, caravans, trailers, motorbikes etc on public streets. Streets are for parking, not storing vehicles which owners don’t have enough room on their property to store.
What if everyone builds a house with no vehicle space and parks their vehicles on the streets? That’s what the council or state government is allowing. No different to people camping illegally on public streets. The relevant authorities need to act to remedy this problem. I believe everyone should house their own vehicles in their own property, off public streets or pay for parking at authorised parking places. It’s the vehicle owners’ responsibility to have a property big enough to park their own items.
Marina, Sunshine Coast: With the cost of living and storage, people are struggling and unable to pay. If the caravans are parked in front of their own homes I do not see the problem. We have three in our street, none of which are mine, and no one seems to mind. Surely there are more important issues to address.
Colin Spink, Wagga Wagga: If they are registered they should be allowed to park on the road, no different to a truck or van.
Nicola Abrahams, Tasmania: If the residents wanted to park a van or ute there they wouldn’t complain. The only possible problem I see is view, so why don’t they make the grass verge the caravan parking if it’s council property and put a restriction that the caravan owners then become responsible of the grass maintenance within so many meters around and under the caravan. If the owner doesn’t maintain it then evict them. Give every caravan owner who puts it there a permit agreement to sign, otherwise leave them where they are so long as they are insured
Rene Brannock, Slacks Creek: It’s a registered vehicle. If leaves and such aren’t blocking the drain what’s? It’s like people who move next to a working farm complaining about the smell and noise. Bet they whinge about it raining the day they planned to go to the beach.
Name withheld, Buderim: We have been writing to the council for over a year due to caravans being parked in front of our house in Buderim and also North Buderim Boulevard near Claremont Street. See the photo (below). Council advised if they are under 7.5m they can be legally parked. It’s annoying and dangerous.
John Shipstone, Golden Beach: I agree that they are at best a nuisance and at worst dangerous, blocking vision of oncoming traffic I am interested to hear that the council says they have no options as a year or so back we had two cars parked in our street, one of which was because the young owner had lost his licence for a few months, the other I’m not sure. Both cars seemed to be registered.
The resident who owned the property in front of where the cars were parked complained to the council and the council came and placed yellow stickers on the vehicles with a notice saying they believed the vehicle to be abandoned and if not moved within a short period (can’t remember but a couple of weeks) the vehicle would be towed away. At the end of the period the one vehicle that remained was duly towed away. If similar tactics were possible I’m sure the problem would be solved.
Terry Doyle, Birkdale: I understand that this causes safety issues for motorists but I have to say that most councils are approving smaller and smaller subdivisions for new houses, which means that there is nowhere for people to park their recreational vehicles. In some cases there is only one garage which means that a couple who have two cars, which almost everyone does, can only park one car on driveway or garage and the other car has to be parked on the road.
Where I live, on the outskirts of Brisbane, I have seen one house demolished and four houses built on that block of land. It is very rare to find a block of land that would take a house and provide adequate parking on the property for either a caravan or boat. Most new houses do not even allow for a person to walk down the side of the house as there is only a few feet on each side. Unfortunately, the council probably didn’t take this into consideration when subdividing land.
Chris Edwards, Noosaville: If a caravan does not have a car attached to it then it should be classified as stored rather than parked.
Mark Green, Cotton Tree: I live in Cotton Tree and with the caravan park there, sometimes I cannot find a park for my car, let alone my caravan, not only because of caravans parked up waiting to enter the park, but holiday unit tenants parking cars for weeks while they have their holidays. This can sometimes be frustrating but I also own a caravan. I mostly leave it parked at a friend’s acreage out of town. I bring it into town when I am heading off on a trip, so try to park near the front of my units so as to load up and prepare to go.
Parking is at a premium everywhere on the Coast. If the council created a designated secure caravan parking area somewhere near the highway, at minimal cost to owners, it would alleviate part of the problem. With a rapidly glowing population, the council needs to address the parking issue sooner than later and not just penalise caravan owners who are generally aware of the problem a bigger vehicle can cause. How about the issue of these huge Yank tanks that blokes buy that are sometimes 7m long and 2.4m wide?
Alan Ward, Buderim: Caravans and tradies’ trailers parked on suburban streets are a hazard to cyclists, especially near bends in the road, as it is difficult for cars passing cyclists to see around them. In Cumberland Way there are long-term caravans parked almost on opposite sides of the road, so oncoming cars cannot cross the centre line to leave a 1m safe space for a bicycle passing at the same time. If caravan and trailer owners don’t have somewhere to park in their yard, they should be made to use a trailer storage area. Perhaps the council should provide such a parking lot at a low fee to get seldom-used vans off the road.
Geoff Edwards, Noosa Heads: When registration is paid, what is the difference to a car? Maybe council could be proactive and rent out a field they own to allow storage at competitive rates, thus gaining revenue for an otherwise redundant facility. Needless to say, if abuse of privilege happens, impound the caravan for crushing. When vans are parked within 30cm of each other they cannot be accessed for living in. Proactive councils are good councils.
Bernadette Strong, Golden Beach: My husband, who is a retired police officer, and I live in Golden Beach and have the same issue regarding a caravan parked in our cul-de-sac. We have written to the council on two occasions and to the police complaining about the dangerous safety situation this caravan is causing. It is parked near the intersection and there is a dividing island with a sign. Initially, we had a four-wheel-drive legally parked too close to the intersection, which caused us to be on the wrong side of the road entering the mentioned intersection, creating a dangerous safety issue with the likelihood of a collision. Now it is the four-wheel-drive and the caravan.
It was bad enough with the width of the vehicle forcing us to the wrong side of the road but now with the extra width of the caravan the danger has increased.  The owner of the caravan doesn’t even live in the street. We understand that the caravan and the four-wheel drive are legally parked but it does cause a dangerous safety situation. It is time that police, local and state governments do something about this issue.
Russell, Coolum Beach: Endless NIMBYism. The Coast is a wonderful forward-looking place. Enough of ’50s thinking.
Margaret Barnes, Mernda, VIC: When I first moved to Mernda 15 years ago we were able to park our caravan in the street outside our property. This has changed in the past 12 months and you can only leave your caravan out the front of the house for seven days once a year. Your council needs to change the law to stop people parking caravans in streets. We now have to park our caravan in an appropriate place, which I think is fair as they take up most of the street space.
Kevin, Inverell, NSW: Well of course people buy a van, boat etc but the problem is all caused by councils. They then discover the only place to part them is on the street. This is council greed happening all over the country, not just the Sunshine Coast. The blocks are getting smaller and smaller, with nowhere to park even a lawnmower they are that small. If councils want to solve this problem they need to look at their planning of subdivisions and the way houses are built on blocks of land. The cause of van and boat street parking is all caused by councils’ bad planning.
Deborah Kozuszek, Mudjimba: l am sick of seeing caravans, boats and trailers parked on our public roads. They are not for private parking, it’s for all the public. We live near the beach and we have up to 12 caravan, boats and trailers parked on one street close to the beach so there is less parking for the public to access the beach and park. Council needs to address this issue as soon as possible as it’s a growing problem as the blocks are getting smaller and more people are buying caravans to escape the suburbs. The roads are getting smaller and narrower and it’s a safety issue.
It’s not fair for people to have other vehicles parked permanently in front of their premises. Its ugly and some are derelicts that should be disposed of. There should be allocated areas for storing of extra vehicles and caravans etc.
Chris Farrer, Howrah, TAS: As long as the caravan is registered there is no reason why they can’t park on public streets.
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb for accountability, credibility and transparency. Preference will be give to letters of 100 words or less.
