SDC backs tighter rules for freedom camping
The Southland District Council is backing most of the Government’s proposals to tighten rules for freedom campers.
However, council staff want to retain some rule-setting autonomy for local communities.
Last month, Tourism Minister Stuart Nash announced proposed changes that would include tougher requirements for vehicles and new fines for breaches.
Councils would be required to police the changes, which could require camping vehicles to be certified as self-contained as well as strengthen rules about where freedom camping can take place.
The Southland District Council’s environmental health manager, Michael Sarfaiti, wrote the council’s submission to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) on the proposal.
Council staff strongly agreed that certain types of vehicle-based freedom camping were a problem, the submission said.
Staff also strongly agreed with the proposal to require freedom campers to stay in certified self-contained vehicles unless they were at a site with toilet facilities, excluding public conservation land and regional parks.
Freedom campers degrading the Southland environment, particularly in Fiordland, have been raised before.
In the submission, Sarfaiti said a prohibition of freedom camping in the Te Anau area was introduced because of serious problems such as tourists camping in inappropriate areas, hanging washing and doing dishes in public-toilet hand basins, as well as litter and waste issues.
However, council staff disagreed with a proposal to require vehiclebased freedom campers to use a certified self-contained vehicle.
The district council wants flexibility to have local rules that permit non-selfcontained camping, should local communities support it, Sarfaiti said.
The proposal would make the council’s non-self-contained sites redundant as very little of this camping was in tents, he said. The council runs 18 freedom camping sites.
In 2019, nationally about 154,000 international visitors spent part of their trip freedom camping.
Last year, Southland District councillors voted to remove the Weirs Beach campground from its maps because the site could not cope with the numbers of visitors.
The council also asked for it to be removed from camping applications, and the MBIE submission asks the Government to use its influence on Google, as Google had been unresponsive to council requests for it not to be promoted, Sarfaiti says.
Councillors were expected to discuss the submission at a meeting on tomorrow.
The district council runs 18 freedom camping sites.