STRIKING a balance between the economic benefits of our burgeoning wedding industry and the amenity of local residents is proving tricky for Shoalhaven City Council.
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While it rightly wants to reap the rewards from our beautiful locales by promoting the region, especially its beaches, as a great place for visitors to tie the knot, a burning friction is building between full-time residents and absentee landlords at Callala Bay.
The issue is twofold. Residents are fed up with their small reserve being taken over by wedding parties. They are also growing tired of the parties that follow the weddings in at least one nearby rental property.
Recognising this, council has limited the number of weddings that can be held in the reserve.
However, that has not stopped the problem, with weddings and the following receptions being held on one of the neighbouring properties, with all the attendant noise and disruption they bring. Once a month would probably be a nuisance but tolerable. Every weekend though is wearing patience paper thin.
Aggrieved residents say council is not enforcing its own regulations that stipulate that parties shut down by 10pm. They say the rental property at the centre of their concern is effectively being operated as a function centre and they want it stopped. The owner of the property maintains there isn’t a problem.
Council needs to step in, lay down the rules and enforce them. Residents cannot be expected to put up with weekend after weekend of loud music and carousing.