Beechworth's John Harvey calls for Council to protect amenity of neighbourhood

Beechworth resident of 30 years John Harvey lives a block away from the popular tourist destination of Billson's Brewery, which he said attracts "hundreds" of people and cars to the residential area.

"We had a quiet residential neighbourhood and now we have cars everywhere, people everywhere, traffic congestion," he said.

"We had one incident a couple of years ago there were 20 motorcycles parked on someone's strip. I've had caravans parked in front of my house, they have busses parked down there (at Billson's).

"It's not just in front of Billson's, it's up and down the side streets, if you go down Williams Street, people just go down there and do U-turns all day."

Mr Harvey has written Indigo Council to express his displeasure, but said the council did not appear to be prepared to do anything about the situation.

"They have the authority to regulate parking and traffic in that area, but they're ignoring it," he said.

"Put it this way, Billson's is big money and we're just humble home owners."

An Indigo Council spokesperson said the Billson's site at 29 Last Street was a mixed-use zone, but it was not aware of any breaches of the zoning.

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"As part of the planning permit process, inspections undertaken between December 2020 and March 2021 to assess compliance with the permit conditions - such as odour, noise and car parking - did not identify any breaches," the spokesperson said.

"Conditions on the planning permit are in place to ensure the amenity of the area and the operation of the site can both be managed."

The spokesperson said neighbouring residents with concerns were welcome to contact the council at any time.

Billson's Brewery owner Nathan Cowan said it was great to see the town so busy after a tough few years.

"The summer holiday peak is a really important time for local hospitality and tourism providers," he said.

"The holidays do generally lead to more traffic which we know can be frustrating for locals.

"We're only open to visitors between noon and 5pm so it's relatively concentrated."

Mr Cowan said the community had been "overwhelmingly supportive".

"We're committed to working collaboratively to address any concerns," he said.

"We've recently added 16 additional car parks on the Williams Street side of the brewery, we've also moved our head office and the majority of our warehousing offsite."

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