Mayor apologises after graffiti attack

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VILLAGERS have waged a graffiti war on caravanners and other travellers camping with their dogs at a beachfront hideaway in northern NSW.

Now the local Clarence Valley Council is offering a reward of up to $2000 in a bid to catch the vandals who have been spray painting visitors' caravans and cars at Brooms Head.

And it has warned that if the culprits are caught they will face the full force of the law.

"Vandalism of any description is just not acceptable," local mayor Richie Williamson, himself a dog owner, told Caravanning News.

"This outbreak is not widespread but the council will take every opportunity it has to catch the perpetrators and prosecute them. I am sure the community would want that."

He apologised to travellers, adding: "All RVs and caravanners are welcome here."

One tourist had to have a new windscreen fitted after it dissolved when a protester used an acid-based adhesive to attach a note reading 'no dogs' on his vehicle.

The vandalism came after the local council wrote to villagers informing them it would allow travellers with dogs to use Diggers Headland Reserve Camping Ground, situated on Crown land.

Council works and civil director Troy Anderson said tourist caravans and vehicles had been defaced by people who might be under the wrong assumption that dogs were still banned from the camping ground.

"If they disagree with the trial they can write to us with their reasons and we will consider them, but they can't take matters into their own hands.

"People come to Brooms Head for a relaxing holiday. They should not expect to be harangued if they are doing nothing wrong.

"We’re running a trial at the moment that allows people to bring their dogs, so long as they meet a fairly lengthy set of conditions, one of which is that they can’t do it in peak holiday periods," he said.

"We’ve written to residents advising them the trial is in place, but some people have taken to issuing their own warnings.

"Sometimes this is in the form of a note glued to a windscreen, sometimes a sign and sometimes they have spray painted vehicles. It is not on.

"People were given the chance to comment on the trial when it went on public exhibition, but we received no comments."

One caravanner has described how he woke up one morning to find a note stuck on the windscreen telling him dogs were not allowed on the camping ground..

He explained that his terrier-cross was on a 2 metre and he had not even walked him on the camping ground.

 "Ask any responsible caravanner travelling with a dog if they have a doggy bag and they will produce one instantly. I carry three or four in my pocket all the time," he said.

Cr Williamson said there had been no complaints of dogs fouling the reserve but it was "fair to say" some villagers did not like the animals being there.

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