On Friday, a truck delivering cold food to his shop became stranded in the huge potholes that bedevil Bellingen’s central car park, the one behind the IGA.

“The truck ended up with some of its wheels off the ground while others were buried in the holes and it couldn’t move backwards or forwards,” Kevin said. 

Rescuing the truck was a community effort involving planks of wood, a hardy ute and the team from Belmech. 

“It was only the towing that got it out,” Megan Gale from Kombu said. “We were trying to reverse the truck and get some traction under those middle wheels with the wood to lift it off, but it needed a bit of a pull.”

Although ownership of this car park is a complex affair, with various surrounding businesses having a stake in it, Kevin is calling on Bellingen Shire Council to step in and do something, for the sake of commerce and tourism in the town. 

“This has been going on for years and they have just been missing in action,” Kevin said. “They’re going to say ‘it’s a private car park, nothing to do with us’ but at the end of the day they are the council, and as far as I am concerned it’s a car park in the middle of town and they need to understand how important it is.”

Bellingen Shire Council has a draft Town Centre Parking Strategy that lists as “proposed actions” liaising with IGA to improve the surface of the car park and investigating the option of two-way flow between the car park and Church St.

But Kevin isn’t impressed by strategies printed in a glossy report.

“They could have all the potholes in that car park fixed in a matter of hours and they’re choosing not to,” he said.

Kevin said Kombu receives up to 30 deliveries a week, two involving large refrigerated trucks, and the drivers dread coming.

“We’ve got suppliers saying they may not be able to deliver to us because it’s in such bad condition that they can’t actually get their trucks to the store,” Kevin said.

“At what point do we take action to fix this? How much damage is it doing to people’s cars?”

As well vehicle-crippling potholes, the car park also features a mouldy old mattress and an abandoned fridge, and last month Kevin emailed council asking if those items could be collected as part of the bulk clean-up.

The reply that took four weeks to arrive said no, as disposal of these goods was the responsibility of the landowner.

The Courier-Sun asked council how plans to improve the car park were progressing and received the following from Deputy General Manager Operations, Matt Fanning:

“Although this is private land, council has been attempting to broker a potential solution to the maintenance of the car park with relevant owners, and other affected parties, however the legal structures that govern the use of the car park area are complex.

“These were put in place in or around 1993 and were the end result of negotiated outcomes surrounding the provision of car parking in association with developments that had been approved over four different properties. Unless all of these parties agree to remove the legal restrictions that were put in place regarding this area, council cannot move forward with the potential funding model that is being explored.

“We are hopeful of having all affected parties agree to this in the near future, and are currently communicating with those parties. Until such time as this agreement is reached council has no legal responsibility to maintain the car park and will not be undertaking any work on behalf of the owners.”