These changes will affect everyone in rural regions.
They remove the community’s current ability to object to function venues, multiple campers and caravans and up to 900 visitors per day visiting farms and on rural zoned land.
Each rural property could be surrounded by 5-15 venues allowed to lawfully operate every weekend of the year.
If you live on rural land, if you have livestock on rural land, if you have an Airbnb on rural land, if you run a farm business, if you run a temporary function centre already operating, if you live in a rural part of NSW, this AFFECTS YOU!
Unlimited Function Venues unregulated and able to operate lawfully unopposed is madness. They are currently prohibited for good and sensible reasons.
Changes like this could change the landscape forever:
- There will be noise and light pollution emanating from these venues on a regular basis – Amplified music, loud voices, unnatural lighting. Noise travels long distances in rural regions and is scattered by local topography like rivers, mountains etc. Noise until 12 midnight is not acceptable for neighbouring primary producers who sleep at night in order to maximise the daylight hours for work.
- Disruption to neighbouring farms and their normal operations – Loud noises and lighting could have severe negative implications for the health, welfare and reproduction of livestock.
- Loss of rural tranquility for locals and visitors alike – Visitors and locals enjoy the relaxed lifestyle and amenity of rural zoned land, that’s why they visit and live there. They should not be subjected to recurrent functions or ‘destination weddings’ or camping and the noise pollution, light pollution and the disruption to the rural amenity that they bring.
- Risk to biosecurity from introduction of exotic plant and animal disease – By inviting visitors onto farms for functions in numbers the biosecurity of neighbouring farms is also at risk. Vehicles and foot traffic can be vectors for foreign weeds, pests and diseases which could pose a huge threat to farming.
- Loss of primary production land as investors buy up to profit from function venues, accommodation and experiences
- Disruption to native fauna – Increasing unnatural noise to these regions by allowing any number of functions a year will likely see native animals change habitats, movement patterns, communications and even breeding patterns.
- Increased traffic on local roads – By allowing functions and events on rural properties you increase traffic on rural roads that were not designed with such high numbers of visitors in mind. This is an extreme safety issue on rural roads. Increasing traffic also increases the risk of native animals being hit by vehicles, especially when drivers are unaware of local conditions.
- Multiple venues can operate on Friday and Saturday night on the rural zoned land without regulation
- Increase in house and land prices as more look to profit from the tourism market
- Risk of losing what makes rural areas such wonderful places, the kind and hard-working people who reside there – If permanent residents no longer enjoy their home environments due to consistent disruption and unnatural noise, they will leave the communities that they support, often in many volunteering roles, and seek out areas that are not suffering from over touristification.
There is no way for council or the state government to control how many of these venues appear.
Locals will have no avenues to object to these activities and events
Policing these venues will be nearly impossible
