‘Irresponsible not to act on’ safety issues

New permanent restrictions for two freedom camping hot spots in Wānaka are now in place after a plethora of issues were raised with the council.

Earlier this year freedom camping was temporarily banned at the Allenby Pl carpark at the foot of Mt Iron.

The ban was later extended until the end of January next year.

At a full Queenstown Lakes District Council meeting last week, councillor Niki Gladding said it would be irresponsible for the council not to act on the health and safety issues arising there due to freedom camping.

Cr Gladding said the ‘‘crazy stream of vehicles’’ she had observed there gave her no doubt there was sufficient evidence of issues at the site.

‘‘I support the prohibition . . . I can’t see why we can’t do this,’’ she said.

Mayor John Glover said there was lots of evidence and issues the council had seen throughout the summer.

‘‘Our job needs to be hand on heart: ‘what is working and what’s not and how can we help that?’.

‘‘There are risks of doing something and there is a risk when doing nothing — and that is what we are here for, to set that direction,’’ he said.

The staff report presented to councillors at Thursday’s meeting states if councillors want to change the freedom camping bylaw, they need ‘‘objective evidence’’ to confirm and clearly identify problems, ‘‘meaning evidence beyond that provided by residents ... and that this evidence needs to be able to show clearly that freedom camping is the activity causing the problem’’.

Across the district, the predominant issue with freedom camping is non-compliance with the rules set out for areas where freedom camping is allowed, the report states.

Breaking the rules around arrival and departure times, parking outside marked spaces for vehicles and too many vehicles camping at a site were examples of ‘‘non-compliance’’.

‘‘In addition to typical non-compliance themes, [Allenby Pl] has site-specific access and safety risks linked to the physical constraints of its access way.’’

The access way was narrow and provided limited visibility for drivers — and it was already well used by pedestrians and cyclists to get to Mt Iron.

Councillors voted to prohibit freedom camping at Allenby Pl carpark and permanently increase the designated spaces at Wānaka Recreation Centre for freedom camping by three spaces.

The council also proposed to amend its freedom camping bylaw to prohibit freedom camping at Beacon Point Rd during the months of December and January annually.

A report on the next steps for amending the bylaw would be presented at this month’s council meeting, the staff report said.