Caravan park seeks flood compo

THE owner of Lismore Palms Caravan Park wants the council to compensate him after he said it failed to remove a road closed sign from near his park.

Lismore Palms Caravan Park owner Geoff Smith. Picture: Mireille Merlet-Shaw

THE owner of Lismore Palms Caravan Park wants the council to compensate him after he said it failed to remove a road closed sign from near his park long after flood waters had receded.

During the height of last week's rains, the main entry to the caravan park was inaccessible due to flood waters and Lismore City Council erected a sign preventing vehicle along High St on Thursday.

Mr Smith said by 9.30am on Friday the water had receded. However, despite repeated calls to council, the closure sign was not removed until 4.30pm, preventing his customers access to the site.

At this time of the year, Mr Smith said he would expect between six and 10 tourists to arrive at the park looking for a camp site. However, on Friday he only had one visit from a pre-booked customer who had spent a considerable amount of time trying to find a back road entry to the park.

Mr Smith wants Lismore City Council to compensate him for an estimated $1000 in lost business due to the sign remaining in place well after flood waters had receded.

He said he was not seeking compensation for the time when there was water over the road, just for Friday when the road was clear of water, but the council's barricade remained up.

"We didn't see one new tourist all day and we would normally expect six to ten people at this time of the year."

Lismore City Council infrastructure services director, Garry Hemsworth, said the sign was removed as soon as possible.

"The road was closed for a couple of reasons," he said. "There was a lot of water over the road near Trinity and equally we had Bangalow Rd closed at Bexhill and Lagoon Grass."

"The traffic management with that closure meant we had to provide somewhere for large trucks to take an alternative route, which is why the sign was at the roundabout."

He said while he sympathised with Mr Smith "unfortunately, with natural disaster events we have got to keep the broader community interests in mind and that means sometimes individual businesses may suffer".

Originally published as Caravan park seeks flood compo