Mayor welcomes city’s camping grant
DUNEDIN Mayor Dave Cull says a $79,000 contribution towards the cost of hosting freedom campers in Dunedin is a welcome respite for the city’s ratepayers.
The grant for the city, from a $8.5 million allocation from the Government’s Tourism Infrastructure Fund, was confirmed on Wednesday.
Mr Cull said yesterday the money would help offset the cost to ratepayers, which the local government sector had been calling for for some time.
‘‘Ratepayers shouldn’t be stumping up for it all,’’ he said.
The contribution to the council was smaller than the sums allocated to councils covering the Queenstown Lakes ($530,000), Central Otago ($297,000), Mackenzie and Waitaki districts ($548,000).
But Mr Cull said the fund was ‘‘potentially oversubscribed’’ nationally, and, after asking for nearly $100,000, he was pleased Dunedin had received about 80% of what it requested.
‘‘They weren’t going to be just throwing it around, so I think this is positive. It will be very useful in offsetting the ratepayer cost of managing freedom camping in our area.
‘‘I think we’ve done pretty well.’’ The money would help pay for new Portaloos, waste disposal, increased monitoring, a trial camp host initiative and increased support for monitoring.
The money would be put to use quickly, as it was a condition of the grant that the initiatives be in place ahead of the 201819 peak season, he said.
‘‘We’ve got to use it by then or we don’t get it.’’