Meeting to hear plans to protect overrun Doc campsite

The way in which councils apply freedom camping legislation is causing confusion. PHOTO: ODT FILES
PHOTO: ODT FILES
Omarama residents will hear from multiple agencies on Saturday what their plans are to protect a once beloved local getaway.

The Department of Conservation's 30-site Ahuriri Bridge Campsite on the banks of the Ahuriri River off State Highway 8, 3km north of Omarama, has been overrun by crowds of up to 100 campers, and Omarama Residents' and Ratepayers' Association chairwoman Ann Patterson has called together a wide range of organisations to speak to the community in the spirit of the recently formalised Mackenzie Basin Agency Alignment Agreement.

"I think the people of this small town deserve to be heard ... We owe it to our children and our grandchildren to look after our land and our rivers," she said.

"If you've got a mess at your back door, you friggin' clean it up. You don't walk away from it, you do something about it.

"Everybody's passing the blame around," Mrs Patterson said.

Central Otago deputy mayor Neil Gillespie would run the meeting, while Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean, Te Runanga o Moeraki upoko David Higgins, Environment Canterbury deputy chairman Peter Scott, Environment Canterbury Upper Waitaki water zone committee chairman Simon Cameron, Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher and Department of Conservation Twizel office operations manager Sally Jones had agreed to speak at the Omarama Memorial Hall, a statement from the association said. Land Information New Zealand had yet to confirm.

Ahuriri Community Board chairman Graham Sullivan, Tourism Waitaki director Rick Ramsey and general manager Margaret Munro, and New Zealand Motor Caravan Association chief executive Bruce Lochore would also attend.

Mrs Patterson said in the past residents' concerns had fallen on deaf ears, but "the people that live in this town - they're just over it".

"One local person said the last time he took kids there, they came out from under the trees with [faeces] all over their jandals, and toilet paper," she said.

"That's the reason why they don't take their children there anymore, because it's not a nice place to go to. And yet, they've grown up there and their parents have grown up there."

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