Freedom campers would be allowed to camp in the same spot for a maximum of three days per month under proposed new Waitaki freedom-camping rules.
The proposed Waitaki District Responsible Freedom Camping Bylaw was approved yesterday for a one-month public consultation period, beginning tomorrow.
Waitaki district councillor Melanie Tavendale, who chairs the freedom camping subcommittee, said she initially expected the bylaw to be ‘‘a little bit more lenient'', but to meet national standards for self-containment there would already be a three-day capacity for grey water and black water.
And she said the bylaw was a response to ‘‘a lot of pressure'' felt by some in the district after last year's camping season, which brought the issue to the fore for many on North Otago's coast.
The purpose of the strict rules, Cr Tavendale said, was to raise the bar, along with other councils, and force an industry that had enabled rapidly expanding freedom camping to change.
‘‘The industry has got to this stage very quickly. They have seen a window, obviously, and they have taken advantage of it, so I think they can be very reactive,'' she said.
‘‘So we are forcing a changing of standard and expectation for what people providing a vehicle have to provide, but it is happening across the country.''
Cr Tavendale said the council had not determined what percentage of freedom campers last year were self-contained, but said she believed ‘‘the majority haven't been''.
At this stage, the bylaw focused on prohibitive measures, and on self-contained freedom camping, but non-self-contained units could be accounted for in the future, once the required infrastructure was in place.
In what would be the first freedom camping bylaw for Waitaki, the proposed measure outlines a list of places in the district where freedom camping would not be permitted.
The proposed bylaw also outlined requirements for campers to use appropriate facilities, to keep campsites clean, and to follow directions from enforcement officers. ‘‘It's a bylaw for our locals, that has put our locals first, but still allows for freedom camping,'' Cr Tavendale said.
Freedom campers would be prohibited from camping directly outside a residential dwelling.
At Campbells Bay, in Kakanui, where the freedom-camping problem was described as ‘‘monstrous'' this summer, a land management deal had been struck with the Kakanui Ratepayers and Improvement Society on Monday.
The society thus far allowed freedom camping on the site, but the land used by freedom campers was a mix of council-owned land and land owned by the society. Now the grassed area closest to residences would be wholly council-managed and freedom camping would be prohibited.
Consultation on the bylaw would include those responsible for the apps that directed traffic to areas known to allow freedom camping; 80% of apps were controlled from one database, Cr Tavendale said.
At an extraordinary council meeting on June 8 the council approved a contingency budget of up to $56,000 for a freedom camping bylaw, and confirmed the council's preference for a freedom camping bylaw with an education and policing requirement.
The bylaw process was expected to allow for rules to be in place before the start of the next camping season.
