Queensland’s Gold Coast is pressing ahead with plans to stop large caravans from ‘littering’ its streets.
The local council says it has been having to paint yellow stripes in front of homes because the number of recreational vehicles in the city has increased by 7,000 in two years.
The Gold Coast Bulletin reports that, to ease congestion and maintain safety, the council wants to outlaw certain vehicles from parking in front of public parks, near intersections and on suburban streets for long periods.
At present, trailers and boats are treated the same as cars, and cannot be fined providing they do not exceed parking laws.
Parked RVs can cause some conflict. PIC: Cizza
“It’s not just the space they are taking up, it is the massive hazard they pose to pedestrians and cyclists trying to navigate streets,” said council lifestyle boss, councillor Hermann Vorster. “Simmering tension in suburban streets with caravans littering cul-de-sacs means desperate owners are now parking near parks and playgrounds … the best place for private property is on private property.”
The Bulletin reports that the council will now write to the Department of Transport and Main Roads to ask for city parking inspectors to be given the power to force the removal of mobile homes.
Council data obtained by the Bulletin shows that there has been a huge surge in the number of complaints about recreational vehicles being left on streets. During 2018-19, just 34 complaints were made through councillors. In 2021, the council received more than 500.
“In an absurd situation, council has had to go into suburban streets and paint yellow lines near driveways just to ensure people can get in and out of their homes,” Cr Vorster told the Bulletin. “This is a clear indication that there is a serious issue and we now need to get the state on board so we can tidy up our streets.”
Surfers Paradise councillor Darren Taylor said the problem was only going to get worse.
“During the past two years, the number of boats and trailers on the Coast have increased because of Covid and now with more southerners coming up looking for our lifestyle, we have to figure out a way to accommodate them,” he said. “The big challenge is that these boats and trailers are taking up a lot of space in areas where we have high-density development and housing, but this is also happening in more suburban locations with caravans.”
The debate about whether it’s acceptable to leave caravans and motorhomes parked on public streets – and if so, for how long – is one that is getting increasingly heated. Last month, it even sparked an incident of violence in a busy Sydney suburb.
If registration is paid, then I believe they have the right to park on the street as long as it not interfering with other users. Our motorhome cannot fit on our property so the only place to park it is on the street. I think others would be in the same position due to space or steep frontage.
I have a Historic vehicle, a Diamond T Reo semi trailer, it is too long to store in one go on the street, so very occasionally, I park the Prime mover out the front of my house and the trailer out the front of my mates place. Only for a day. I have hired an enclosed building for the vehicle and it’s trailer, for long term storage. If I can do that, why can’t you do it too Linda?
Hmm, Have you heard of paying for Storage?
Hope for your neighbours, that you don’t decide to go into live stock transport.
There are many storage places available to hire. Streets and for generally short term
Short term ? But a car can park there indefinately
Surely then, rather than potentially inconveniencing neighbours and affecting traffic flow, the option of parking it in a storage facility would be a better option
But you have to understand the selfish nature of most people. It is unfortunate that most only care about themselves and will find justification for such behaviour.
The problem is people buy before they think, first work out where you are going to park/store what you want to buy and only then go and buy it. Dont litter the roads with boats, caravans, large trucks/trailers….especially longer than one day.
Overnight for a Maximum of two days to load and unload perhaps. Otherwise use a storage facility.
What if it is interfering with other people
The problem has been brought about by thr council. Allowing ddelopnent without adequate parking areas either on properties or nearby.
Only fair answer is for council to acquire land – but of course the council will cry “poor” despite the huge rates revenue it is receiving.
Onya Alf, this is a very good comment and totally agree.
I don’t think it reasonable at all for owners of caravans, boats or motor homes to effectively claim a section of public road for their own personal use…which is what they are doing by parking their possession on public property for extended periods.
Where i live in a cul-de-ac one of the home owners plainly believes the cul-de-sac is an extention of his driveway as he parks his sail boat, which he uses for maybe 2 weeks out of the year, in the only accessible parking area. It makes it impossible to even turn around in the cul-de-sac, forcing a 3 – 4 point turn if you want to, and also totally precludes anybody else from parking a vehicle for even 24 hours.
IMO if you want to own any vehicle which you cannot fit on your property and are not using it daily or weekly, park it at a friend’s place or a dedicated vehicle storage area…
As far as I know it is illegal to park in the end turn around area of a cul-de-sac, it must have room for garbage truck, ambulances and other emergency vehicles to turn around safely, if this is so the local council rangers can book them for doing it.
Providing the caravan,trailer or boat is owned by the reidents that they are parked outside of and not in front of someone elses property I see no problems at all and if you can’t park outside your own place are the councils going to refund the registration cost ?
Malcolm. You misunderstand your right as a resident. You have no more “right” to park outside your own house than anyone else does. Your property starts inside the road-related-area. The road and footpath are not yours.
And what if you can’t see past it to safely get out of your own driveway? Not like a car you can see around or through!
If the councils weren’t so bloody greedy with how many houses they can fit in one street and make it law that every house has at least 3m on one side of property people would be able to park in their yards
Property owners must adapt. They choose to live there. If I want to park a caravan at my property I buy a property to suit, otherwise I would take it to storage. I could never be so ignorant and selfish to park my van permanently in the street. It is anti-social behaviour.
This is what happens when housing moves away from the good old 1/4 acre block with a standard 3 bedroom 1 bathroom home on it. Now you have larger houses on smaller blocks on narrower streets with no gardens for the kids to play in. This is the price we pay for progress?
Before I down sized from my modest home on a 1/4 acre block I had room for a caravan and two cars in my single driveway and if I really wanted I could have concreted my front yard for more parking as my neighbours did when they bought a motor home. Another neighbour occasionally parked his Snap On Tools Truck outside his house and we all coped very well.
I would be horrified if I had to look at that caravan in the picture outside my place everyday and feel that you must think before you buy; where am I going to park it? can I afford to store it?
Believe me I know, my current place is so small in block size and home size that I have think before I buy ANYTHING even my clothes and my camping gear lives under my bed. But, I’m reasonably content and I don’t miss the stuff or the house work.
I would however, love to buy a camper trailer, but I’ve got knowwhere put it and if I can’t afford to stow it I can’t afford to buy it is my motto.
Lucy, At last a non biased opinion. Well said.
Like all issues of this kind, most people are either very selfish or very uncompromising.
I park my van on my property and happy not to block the street.
To a previous entry, Council doesn’t set lot sizes, Developers do, yes Council profits by this, but we all have choices.
Phil
Excellent reply,hit the nail on the head.
I reside in a 3 hr limit parking area , recently receiving a 82 $ parking infringment ..how ever the boat that takes up 2 unmarked parking spaces 20 mters away has hardly moved in 4 years is exempt.. this is the
Gold Coast where parking is at a premium and most hi rises provide parking for 1 vechile only .
I pay council rates, I pay registration, I pay road taxes via petrol excise I park outside my own house. I do not obstruct traffic or pedestrians. Where am I going wrong for all you hate filled people to want me out of the way?
Ahhh, the catch-cry of the self-entitled. “I pay my rates……….”
No-one is hate-filled, Alex. But if you feel that sentiment, then your action of parking in the street is clearly the wrong thing to do.
Alex, As I have stated above, you do not have a presumed “right” to park in the street outside your own house. You own what is on your title. The street outside is public. We all have the same right to that space and should be allowed fair access to it.
How would you feel if I park my caravan outside your house, permanently? Remember, that’s how your neighbour feels, all the time. Your invented and presumed “right” upsets others. Please consider others and harmony will prevail.
It’s arrogance. Which is free, so it’s grabbed with both hands and claimed as his own. I would love a Long wheel base MH, but my property only sports a restricted site, so I make do with a smaller one. Am I stupid or something?
You are not stupid, Otzi. You are one of the rare considerate people.
We bought our house on a corner block so that we had space off the road for our caravan and 4WD
So no way should any one be be allowed to park a boat van etc on the road in front of their property. How do tradies , the delivery men and visitors find a place to park when these clowns do this??
Same argument if you can’t afford to travel without spending most of your time free camping, don’t travel.
When I insured my camper trailer I was asked about the usage and parking arrangements. I assume all caravan insurers do the same and it effects the premiums.
If you told the insurers that it was going to be parked off-road and it was damaged after being parked in the street for more than a few days, would the insurers fully meet your claim?
Hi Dennis,Spot on ,have to tell company where it was parked,
Got small off roadtrailer ,have shed built ,locked up secure.
Where we live car’s are parked both sides of the road with make it near impossible for me to get to my drive way with my van.
On closer inspection most carports are used as storage and have no room to park their car. So now you have to look on the other side of the coin, both items are registered to use the road including insurance. One house on a corner, we counted five cars which made seeing traffic coming down the road very frustrating.
Guess the debate will be interesting if accidents happen who will be deemed in the wrong ?
We live in NSW, our new neighbours have 3 cars, a car trailer and a large van, between 2 people, the trailer and caravan are parked on the street ( van in front of our house)as is one vehicle, my wife’s car has been hit leaving our driveway as you can not see around it, unknown to us when police arrived , the neighbour was fined and told to move the caravan as there is a law that states vans over 7.5 mtres in length can not be parked on a public street for more than 1 hour, registered or not, Perhaps this should apply,
My van is in my yard,
My thoughts are if you cant park it on your property you should not have it,
It is a very interesting discussion regards where to store a caravan motor home boat or even a trailer. The streets where never built with storage of these items in there design to start with.
It can also be said that old city streets where built not to park cars in. The horse was put in a stable and the sulky buggy or dray where housed in a suitable storage.
Where we have come to is not the greater communities problem to be expected to pay the cost for people that choose to have the first mentioned items. There are lots of places which people do take advantage of to store the for mentioned items. If you can afford to own the item then it is at your cost to look after it not the greater population. An example here is if you own a holiday home you pay the rate and upkeep not the greater population.
There are two major problems here.
1′ Council/gov’t setting small limits on road widths in new developments thus forcing ALL vehicles off road.
2; Gov’t grabbing fees and charges for rego. etc not prepared to help return some value to owners by making community space available.
Also, in my region, the local council allows developers to sell lots of 350 Sq. Metres without a driveway to the road. Residents have to access any garage via a narrow back lane ??
If people don’t buy small blocks then enviably the developers will increase sizes !!
People who buy small block are accepting their fate !!!
I can’t believe this happens in the eastern states. When I first saw vans and boats in the street in NSW I was amazed. No such thing here in SA and I’m so glad. Get rid of them!
I was in Norwood today and there was a van stored with tarp cover, in the street.
what is the council going to do about car/utes, etc permanently parked on the road – especially when like some older suburbs, there are no driveways/garages?
I think it’s fine to park on the street if your visiting, not long term. If you own a caravan or RV and you have no place within the bounds of your property to park it off the street then you should be storing it elsewhere. We had a van that was too big for our property and we were lucky enough to be able to store it on a friends property, but this meant a half hour country trip to collect it to go away, but at least it meant our neighbours didn’t have to put up with it. We’ve since bought a home where we can store it onsite and it’s way more convenient.
I can understand the concern in some situations. I believe the common sense rule should apply rather than a one size fits all council policy. It depends on the size of the van, the width of the street and any potential hazards in blind siding neighbours. I personally keep my van (16.5ft ) on our very wide, well lit street, but I have put extra reflectors on it for the night and I park it in the middle of my street frontage so my neighbours have a clear view to enter the street. The other issue here is that the cost of storage of a van in storage facilities is prohibited for many people. The days of a caravan holiday as a cheap family alternative has just about been lost with soaring inflation. I just see this as another nail in the coffin.
If you want to park your rig on Council streets be aware that Councils are considering using satellite images to calculate how many days per year a large vehicle belonging to a rate payer is parked on their streets and adding a commercial fee to your rates. You really should pay for the storage space, not steal it from your neighbours and the trades and delivery people who need access daily.
Here is what it cost to create my storage space –
My property has a rear lane for access, but the lane is only 6m wide. With a 2m driveway length I detirmined that my 23.5′ van (9m tow hitch to rear corners) needed a 4m wide ‘swing’ space to get in/out. But there was only 2.8m of free space beteen my garage and next door’s fence, then an unused 300mm to their garage.
A friendly discussion got permission to remove the fence IF I then concreted the gap to prevent the @##@!!@ weeds from growing in that @@##@!!@ inaccessable space. I then ‘shortened’ my shed by 1 sheeting panel (960mm) at the cost of $30 in fasteners and half a day’s work.
Concreting a 4m x 12m slab with water shedding slope, a grate and buried stormwater pipe then cost $1800 (in 2015) and adding a stop bar, 10m of colorbond fencing and 6m of colorbond gates was $2100. Running a 15A underground cable (45m), sub board and waterproof outlet another $1200 (I had the electrician run a second conduit spaced at 250mm with a CCTV cable). 1 additional camera + 50m of cable was only $100 so silly not to include it.
I’ve looked into roofing the van space, but its not allowed within 900mm of a property boundry, so it can’t happen in this case.
All up $5250 then, more like $8000 now. Commercial storage costs within 10km of my home are currently $1500 per year uncovered to $3000 covered, So I’m well in front over the 7 years since building it. And I have the convenience of access for maintenance and overflow accommodation for visitors.
With the large number of covid purchased RVs appearing on Council streets how long do you think it will be before fees appear?
Plan ahead NOW !
Plan ahead NOW !
Plan ahead NOW !
Plan ahead NOW !
bye.
Plan ahead now ?? Is that not an oxymoron.?
I cannot see any reason why private property (on wheels or not) should be allowed to be stored on public land.
If you cannot afford to store it don’t buy it.
It’s as simple as that!
I can tell you what will happen if I bought an oversized kayak which doesn’t fit into my garage and left it chained to a tree at the lakeside park down the road…….
I just laughed when i read ” the best place for private property is on private property.”, We owned a caravan in Victoria, we had downsized to an original house that had 2 units built on the same bloke before us,. There was great access to park the van off the street but got told in uncertain terms that we had to gave so much “green area” and would be fined if we did it and only permitted to park it on the road for 7 days max!
So yeah, a registerd vehicle is limited as to where to park.
There is a problem in my street where certain people park a large Caravan & a boat on a trailer in front of their home on the Street for sometimes mths at a time, then to rub salt into the community, they will park their Vehicles directly opposite so as to effectively make what is a laryge wide street, a Single Lane street with little vision ahead. Very dangerous. I would support a Nationwide Ban on this.
What about a caravan on the grass outside someone’s house, on nature strip (off their property) on blocks with power cord leading to the house it is out front of??
Hi I have read a lot of the comments but what about visiting your family. Travelling in Van want to stay with family on gold coast for a couple of weeks. Sleep in house. Cannot put Van on property no room. Van is under 7.5mts. There is a parking area outside of sister’s house which is separate to two lanes for each way. Would this be a problem.
I paid 3/4 of a million dollars for a ground floor apartment on marine parade Labrador and I have a large 2 story motor home blocking my view and city parking tell me there is nothing they can do,been there for 5 days. REDICULOUS!!!!!
This is most likely due to the Council closing the private storage facility on Government Road.
HAVE A CAMPERVAN PARKED IN FRONT OF MY PLACE AND JUST CANNOT SEE TO GET OUT ONTO THE STREET, SUCH A RISK HAZARD TO EVERYONE
I think it is as usual, the bad ruin it for others. If it is safe and not an inconvenience I don’t see the problem. Cars can park were ever for how ever long they want. I have a neighbors who has an unregistered car next to my house instead of parking it in his own drive way. now it is registered but remains in the same spot for 6 months. So that is ok but if I put a small caravan there, that is not ?
I’m a bus driver and a lot of these caravans, boats etc are permanently there and hardly used as I see them day after day. My issue is they are making my job so much more dangerous and it’s very annoying. If u buy one of these things you have to be able to store on your and someone else’s property!!
Well, let’s start perhaps by making the application process easier for people to obtain secondary driveways for larger properties so that we can drive and store our boats and caravans. We have a corner block and would be perfect if we would be able to have a secondary crossover to the other side of our house, to park the caravan or a boat but Gold Coast City Council has made it just ridiculously hard to obtain the permits and standards for driveways are much higher, then your own actual roads. If you want to take something away, then find a solution also!
4 weeks would be my limit, then put them in a storage area
The big Rams & monster 4WD utes are just as bad