Deliveries by vehicle of freshly-caught lobster to a Beachport receival depot have been made safer following a recent decision of Wattle Range Council.

Until now, the vehicles have delivered the prized catches to the Limestone Coast Fishermen’s Cooperative via a private lane and then been forced to reverse out.

The lane carries much foot traffic as it is near the Beachport jetty and micro-brewery and houses the Lobster Pot retailer.

The receival depot is owned by “Slim” and Mandy Reilly and they are also members of the Limestone Coast Fishermen’s Cooperative.

They applied to council for permission for these lobster transport vehicles to exit the private lane via the council-owned car park fronting Railway Terrace.

The Reilly’s application was lodged late last year and council decided to undertake public consultation on the proposal.

Almost 110 responses were received by the council with the majority giving it their blessing as it would assist the flow of traffic.

However, the opponents were worried about the impact of lobster delivery vehicles in the car park and the loss of a vehicle parking area.

In his report, engineering services director Peter Halton noted the proposal was high risk.

“The risk issues relating to this report are the conflict between pedestrians and vehicles,” Mr Halton said.

“The consequence of an incident is a severe injury to a pedestrian due to the mixed use of the carpark area this is possible thus the risk is high.”

All responses were tabled at the April monthly council meeting along with Mr Halton’s report.

It noted that two car parking spaces would have to be removed to make way for the exiting vehicles.

A formal deputation from the Limestone Coast Fishermen’s Cooperative including Mr Reilly was present and they gave a 10-minute presentation.

When the time came to discuss the Reilly application, Councillor Richard Cassidy cited a conflict of interest and left the chamber as he is a member/director of the Limestone Coast Fishermen’s Cooperative.

Much of the debate centred on the loss of the two car park spaces.

“We have heard for years about the lack of car parking at Beachport,” Deputy Mayor Cr Peter Dunnicliff said.

“We should try to keep as many car parks as possible.”

After several minutes of debate, the council decided to give conditional permission to the Reillys.

There will be restricted access to the Railway Terrace car park during such community events as the thrice-yearly street markets.

Furthermore, the lobster delivery vehicles can only use this exit between 5am and 8pm during the lobster catching season.

At the suggestion of Cr Dale Price, the approval will remain in place for five years and will then be reviewed.