Top 10 owner cries foul over council camp
Plans to build a freedom camping unit at Waihi Beach just 400 metres from the nearest holiday park has local businesses up in arms.
Last August the Western Bay of Plenty District Council received
$340,000 from an $8 million tourism infrastructure package designed to prevent a repeat of last summer’s issues with messy freedom campers.
But an owner of two Top 10 Holiday Parks at Waihi Beach, Ian Smith, is furious that the council, which is also his landlord, will compete with him for business when its KiwiCamp unit opens 400m from one park and 800m from the other.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) website states that projects receiving funding ‘‘must demonstrate that they do not compete with commercial activities in the region’’.
Smith said there was no consultation over the location of the unit, which offers pay-as-you-go shower, laundry and dishwashing facilities.
He estimated campervan guest nights at his parks had dropped by
3000 to 5000 annually as freedom camping increased, and he was unhappy at the council’s attitude to the MBIE funding criteria.
Western Bay of Plenty mayor Garry Webber said the council had met with three campground owners, ‘‘followed due process’’, and had consents for the unit.
Top 10 Holiday Parks chief executive David Ovendale said all 50 in his network were hurting to some degree from the rise in freedom camping. ‘‘It’s very hard to compete with free.’’