RAFFLES can be the lifeblood of community groups, providing much needed funds to keep them afloat, however in recent weeks, there’s been confusion and angst, because of a new system of booking space on footpaths or areas, owned or managed by MidCoast Council.

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President of the Tea Gardens/ Hawks Nest Motor Club, Juergen Seil said, “The recent change to an electronic booking system is an absolute disaster and very poorly implemented.”

For the past 16 years, any group wishing to book a space to sell raffle tickets or promote a community group, dropped into the MidCoast Council office in Tea Gardens and lodged their name, time and event and location required in a master book.

Now it’s all done online as part of the Council’s Vibrant Spaces initiative.

The system generates a permit to the group wanting the space after checking that it’s available.

One of the most popular raffle areas is outside the Hawks Nest Newsagency.

Owner Hugo Elsterman has been happy to oblige community organisations as long as they didn’t set up outside the post office boxes.

Jeurgen Seil is calling on Council to advise every Club in the Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest area about the new booking system so there’s no more confusion or confrontation when several groups turn up to the same location on the same day.

Mr Seil says they’ve lost more than $500 in revenue over the past couple of weeks, money they can ill afford to lose ahead of this year’s Motorfest in March even though they did the right thing by registering with Vibrant Spaces and had a permit.

News Of The Area spoke to MidCoast Council and was told that they would be looking into fine tuning the Vibrant Space Initiative.

The booking system does not apply to Myall Quays Shopping Centre, where any raffle needs to be approved by the centre’s management and local shop owners.

By: Margie TIERNEY