This article was released on news.com.au & in the Daily Telegraph on page 9 on the 4th of March 2010:

Backpackers turn streets into toilets while waiting to sell campervans

• Backpackers sell camper vans on streets
• Accused of using gutters for toilets
• Residents, businesses sick of the mess

BACKPACKERS are clogging busy streets and making themselves at home on the footpaths while they wait up to six weeks to sell their vans.

The budget travellers, from mostly Europe, are also accused of using gutters as toilets.

Residents and business owners are so sick of the mess they have demanded authorities take action.

Angela Gallo, whose Sydney cafe is near where the backpackers congregate, said: ”They sit outside our cafe with their gas burners and chairs, cooking meals sometimes for eight people and make a mess of the footpath. 

“All the City of Sydney Council has to do is put up signs saying, ‘Selling vehicles is illegal’ and start towing them away.”

The most congested spots include Sydney’s Potts Point and beachfront roads around Bondi, Coogee and Manly.

The backpackers try to trade their vehicles before heading home.

Peter Miller, manager of Great Aussie Backpackers in Potts Point, said there was an oversupply of vehicle sellers in Sydney.

“With the downturn in global economies, we have more backpackers leaving Australia than arriving, so they sit there for days and weeks because they have lots of time and not a lot of money,” he said.

“I’ve got no problem with backpackers themselves. The problem . . . is with the selling of vans in the city.”

One backpacker, Cedric Lemercier, from France, said he had been trying to sell his van for five weeks and had dropped the price from $6000 to about $3500.

“I am going to New Zealand next, and I need the money,” he said.

The City of Sydney has told residents it is investigating.

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