My wife and I are long term permanent residents of Turner Park, so of course our immediate concerns are with the proposed development of the park.

Firstly I would like to thank the shire president for his obvious genuine concern about the effects on the long term residents of the park.

It’s a case of bouquets for him and brickbats for other councillors who have obviously no knowledge of caravanning or caravan parks and are prepared to talk with misguided authority about the caravan industry.

This whole development plan is based on the opinions of experts who live elsewhere and have little knowledge or previous experience of the ambience and the lifestyle associated with Turner Park.

They ignore the weather factor here, ignore the fact that this park developed over the years due to families (and fishermen) returning year after year (but not much, I might add, for the six months from June onwards).

I have said in previous correspondence that I agree that some development of the park is necessary for the sake of Augusta and the shire council but for goodness sake there is no need to go in boots and all, turfing a few long term residents out to build some chalets/cabins when a trial number could be built along the waterfront without evicting anybody yet.

Perhaps the council have considered this already, but wouldn’t it be most sensible to have a trial run first?