Ōreti Beach residents Joyce Kolk and Courtney Wakelin addressed a public forum at an Invercargill City Council meeting last week about the many instances of anti-social behaviour at the beach.
The behaviour of some of the drivers on the beach was not good, Ms Kolk said.
‘‘When you go there and you witness the driving behaviour of some of the lunatics, it’ll be only a small percentage but it’s quite horrific seeing them hanging out of cars as they’re doing doughnuts.’’
Mr Campbell said he had been walking his dogs at the beach for about 20 years and the behaviour had deteriorated in that time.
‘‘The change has been slow and steady but it’s very very noticeable so I have absolute sympathy with you.’’
In the past if people wanted to do doughnuts or drive their motorcycles they went up the beach several kilometres, Mr Campbell said.
‘‘They were still, I’m sure, breaking the law but they weren’t really bothering anybody.
‘‘What you find now is that they’re actually doing it at the entrance.
‘‘It’s incredible, I mean I’ve had people doing them around me, it’s astonishing.’’
Ms Kolk said some people might not realise the beach was a public road and had a speed limit.
‘‘Any vehicles on there need to be warranted, registered, [and the] same with the motorbikes.’’
One day she observed a father unable to cross the beach to the water’s edge where his young daughter was playing due to the cars driving past.
‘‘You think that must be horrific for that parent to be in that situation.’’
She had been at the beach with her family when drivers were doing doughnuts nearby.
‘‘They didn’t care that there were hundreds of people on the beach.
‘‘They were driving through them at speed.’’
People also lit fires on the beach burning wood but also furniture.
‘‘It was a couple of years ago that the helicopters had to come to stop the fire that took a hold on the beach, burnt the dunes, was heading to the pine trees.’’
The dumping of rubbish was a new thing, Ms Kolk said.
‘‘We’ve got a whole lot of household rubbish, like furniture, all sorts of stuff, washing machines, things, tyres, lots of tyres and rims.
‘‘Usually the tyres are put out there to come back and set fire to.’’
Items used for drug use were also found on the beach, she said.
Last year she was part of a beach cleanup that started in Riverton and ended at Ōreti.
‘‘We picked up 1.2 tonnes ... which doesn’t sound like a lot but there were three cars that we couldn’t have removed.
‘‘They’ve just been burnt out and left there.
‘‘As far as I know they’re still there.’’
She suggested possible solutions might be better signage to let people know what behaviour was acceptable on the beach and closing the beach after dark.
The council bylaw stated vehicles could drive on the beach, but no faster than 30kmh.
Drivers should treat the beach as a road and not drive erratically or cause damage through loss of traction or manoeuvres such as doughnuts.
No vehicles, including motorbikes, are allowed to drive on the sand dunes.
After the meeting Ms Kolk said people drove in the dunes and killed the marram grass growing there.
Preserving the environment was important to her, she said.
Ms Kolk was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal in 2019 for her conservation efforts.
She did not want to stop access to the beach.
‘‘I just want to shut it at night to stop the creeps and the weirdos coming out here and burning out cars and doing their drugs.’’
