Mayor hopes bylaw will solve camper issues
CENTRAL Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan is hoping a proposal to develop a draft bylaw about irresponsible camping will help councils and visitors throughout the country.
Mr Cadogan told the Otago Daily Times during the twoday South Island Mayors Conference in Cromwell yesterday that he was part of a Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) steering group looking at how to solve issues with irresponsible campers.
He and Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne are the only mayors on the group.
Mr Cadogan said it was pro posed to develop a draft bylaw on irresponsible camping that could be adapted and used by councils throughout the country, and he praised LGNZ for ‘‘taking the lead’’ in the issue.
He said the bylaw could help provide consistency for both councils and tourists. Although there were significant problems with irresponsible camping throughout the country, he acknowledged it would be ‘‘almost impossible’’ for tourists to know what was provided and permitted, and it would be helpful to them to have more information.
Sixtysix mayors, councillors, chief executives and other council staff were in Cromwell for the conference on Thursday and yesterday.
The conference consisted mainly of meetings about operational issues, but the group also visited the Bendigo camping area on the shores of Lake Dunstan, Mr Cadogan said.
All southern mayors had problems with irresponsible campers and conference attendees were ‘‘very interested’’ in the progress Central Otago was making towards tackling the issue, he said.
The group enjoyed seeing the Bendigo site, and was ‘‘encouraged’’ by the progress the Central Otago District Council (CODC) had made with Land and Information New Zealand (Linz), which managed the site with its contractors, Mr Cadogan said.
Problems at the Bendigo site were the worst they had been last summer, when toilets and rubbish bins overflowed and up to 100 vehicles had stayed there some nights.
Since then Linz and the CODC had agreed a joint approach was the only way to solve the problem.
Linz plans to install counters at camping areas to gather data on how many people are visiting; install fencing to better define parking, camping and boat access areas; and install more toilets at Bendigo.