A hearing on the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s proposed freedom camping bylaw was held at the Lake Wanaka Centre yesterday and in Queenstown on Monday.
The hearings followed an online submission period seeking public feedback on how to regulate freedom camping in the district.
The council received 284 submissions on the proposal.
Alison and Neal Brown, of Johns Creek, were the first of 10 speakers to appear before deputy mayor Calum MacLeod and Crs Niki Gladding and Craig Ferguson.
Mrs Brown said camper vans, obviously not self-contained, drove right past their house to get as close as they could to the lake edge.
She said the proposed bylaw had ‘‘nothing for Lake Hawea’’ as most of the foreshore was managed by Land Information New Zealand (Linz) or the Department of Conservation.
John Taylor, of the Guardians of Lake Hawea, implored the council to ‘‘get on board’’ with Linz.
He said the eastern and western shores of Lake Hawea "cannot be controlled because the majority of it is Linz land and council has no authority in that area."
Rik Deaton, of Hawea, said the New Zealand economy was 100% dependent on tourism, motorhome travellers were a huge part of the industry and ‘‘we should encourage sleeping by the side of the road’’.
He said motorhomes would distribute the visitor population away from tourist hot spots such as Wanaka and Queenstown.
Sean Gilbertson described himself as a local ratepayer who had worked in tourism for many years.
Mr Gilbertson said the current freedom camping bylaws were not fit for purpose as the taxpayer was subsidising freedom campers.
If visitors could not afford to pay $7 to stay at the Albert Town camping ground ‘‘they should probably not come’’, he said.
Several submitters praised the Luggate Red Bridge freedom camping site but opposed a proposed new site at the Camp Hill car park.
Esther Water said the car park was regularly full with recreational day visitors, and it was beside a one lane bridge, at the crossroads of cycle and hiking tracks and near the purpose-built whitewater park.
The company hired by the council to assess the site’s suitability for freedom camping ‘‘significantly underestimated the importance of Camp Hill to the community’’.
Sarah Burdon opposed all the current freedom camping areas and any new sites.
Freedom camping relied on the goodwill of the people to ensure they were responsible and ‘‘you can see that ain’t happening’’.
She had taken ‘‘168 photos of loo paper at Craigburn, Lake Hawea, and there was a loo there’’.
The pressures of tourism would return and this was an opportunity to say no to freedom camping, she said.
In his closing remarks, Cr MacLeod said the panel would deliberate next week and a recommendation would likely be made to the council before the end of the year.
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Comments
I counted about 80 submissions in the QLDC document that called for a blanket district-wide ban, either explicit or clearly implied by the submitters' statements. Since the Freedom Camping Act 2011 clearly states that a blanket ban is not allowed, as mentioned in another article that ODT published, I believe those submissions should be disallowed and not be referenced in the statistics in the final report to council.
In the Report for Agenda Item, 27 September 2021, Para 2 (a) it says "...should be prohibited more widely (some say everywhere)." The use of the word "some" is very misleading.
quote;** "She had taken ‘‘168 photos of loo paper at Craigburn, Lake Hawea, and there was a loo there’’**. -
Like Minister Nash and MP Pugh its a bit of a stretch to be blaming freedom campers on that level of evidence - so much is hearsay ands assumptions and yet when people have installed cameras to monitor freedom campers they still fail to find evidence its freedom campers? What is it now 203 years since Minister Davis rolled out cameras and still zero evidence. Time the blame game stopped and we addressed the real evidenced problems
quote;** "She had taken ‘‘168 photos of loo paper at Craigburn, Lake Hawea, and there was a loo there’’**. -
Like Minister Nash and MP Pugh its a bit of a stretch to be blaming freedom campers on that level of evidence - so much is hearsay and assumptions and yet when people have installed cameras to monitor freedom campers they still fail to find evidence its freedom campers? What is it now 2-3 years since Minister Davis rolled out cameras and still zero evidence. Time the blame game stopped and we addressed the rea, evidenced problems - if we can find any!