Parking at Wellington Point

There was a Council Meeting held last week that neither Tony or I could attend due to travel commitments but I called the coordinator today to see if we could have our say as Windsurfers. I would normally ask for feedback from the group before submitting a response but it had to be in by today so I took the liberty of responding with the following. If anyone has any major objections I can withdraw the comments otherwise it will stand as our opinion and then at least we would have had our say.

Dear Abdish,

Thanks for your time this morning in getting me up to speed with the arguments put forward at the Council Meeting held last week to discuss the parking arrangements at Wellington Point. Sorry I was unable to attend but both myself and Tony Matta, our treasurer were out of the country.

The issue I would like to put forward from a windsurfers and park users perspective is that the trailer parking is quite often underutilised in the later part of the day due to most boat owners basing their fishing trips around the earlier part of the day when the wind is generally less prevalent.

It seems to me that most families coming to the area to use the recreational facilities arrive around lunch time and this is when there is the majority of the congestion. Windsurfers will generally be arriving later in the day to take advantage of the afternoon sea breezes (except in winter when the Westerlies come through early - these are far less prevalent than the Easterly breezes in Summer, so are the exception rather than the norm).

The fact that there seems to be a time period more suited to either group, i.e. boat owners in the morning and recreational users in the afternoons, there may be an option to regulate the use of trailer bays for the fishermen up to a certain time, say 11.00am (I imagine most anglers would be on the water by then) and then de-regulate them beyond that time so that recreational users in cars can occupy the spots.

If there is a possibility to trial such an option I am sure at the very least we would all learn something from the experiment.

Sincerely, Scot Farley (President Windsurfing Queensland).

Maybe there is time to update a bit rules for trailer parking as such.
Should be created category such as "vehicle boat/vessel carrier" to be allowed to park in water vicinity and other far away.
Doesn't matter if we do carry windsurfing board on the roof, inside or in attached trailer we just need to be able park close enough to water.
Kiters for obvious reason excluded but SUP and kayak'er included.

If could be made at the cost of ordinary parking space rather then trailers.
Rule could be caller "priority water parking" - you could park your ordinary car in priority space only when there is at least 1-2 empty space left for priority water vessel carrier car.

I actually live reasonably close to Wello but choose to sail at either VP or Point Halloran. Main reason is that I don't want the parking hassles, also for the crowds of swimmers in summer who choose to swim anywhere and everywhere without any regard to their own safety.
However that's my personal problem!

Good on you Scott in the attempt to get better parking for all water users - Good Luck!

Thanks Scot