Councils keeping watch on freedom camper hot spots
South Island councils are taking a Big Brother approach to freedom campers this summer with officers monitoring hot spots across the city and Banks Peninsula.
Last year freedom campers clogged up the car park at the Akaroa boat ramp, creating chaos when boaties went to launch. They washed their hair under a tap. They cleaned their teeth at a drinking fountain.
Tensions boiled over and there were conflicts between boaties and tourists.
Residents at Catons Bay reportedly let out roosters to drive freedom campers away.
This year "no camping" zones were introduced around the Akaroa boat ramp to encourage people to use motorcamps instead, Akaroa-Wairewa Community Board chairwoman Pam Richardson said.
"That's where the facilities are and that's where people should be," she said.
The solution falls short of a bylaw, which councils on the West Coast and in the North Island have implemented.
In 2011 the Government passed the Freedom Camping Act, giving councils the power to regulate the practice.
Rules vary in different districts or cities.
The Grey District Council's bylaw allows it to hand out $200 fines to people found camping in vehicles not certified as self-contained.
"If you are in a car or a stationwagon without any facilities, what's the first thing you want to do when you wake up in the morning? A staff member spotted someone going to the toilet in the bush [last] weekend," compliance team manager Kevin Hebberd said.
A third of fines were written off "almost immediately", however, "because we find either a vehicle is certified [just not displaying it] or they have some other good excuse", he said.
"We only have one area prohibited to all vehicles . . . Jacks Rd on the way into Greymouth. We had a history of problems there."
A bylaw is an enforcement tool the Christchurch City Council lacks. Instead, it has freedom camping officers keeping an eye on hot spots throughout Christchurch and Banks Peninsula, including the Akaroa boat ramp, nearby French Farm and Duvauchelle and Marine Pde in New Brighton.
"The council will likely consider the need/feasibility for any bylaw associated with freedom camping in 2015," inspections and enforcement unit manager Anne Columbus said.
Officers had observed 318 examples of freedom camping since October.
More than half were in vans, 22 per cent in campervans, 16 per cent in motorhomes and 10 per cent in cars.
Despite the lack of a bylaw, if a freedom camping officer discovered someone doing something wrong, like littering or leaving human waste in a public place, "there are infringement provisions for these types of offences", she said.
The Press