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Areas of the Hibiscus Coast favoured by freedom campers are to feature new signs prohibiting the practice, which will be enforced by Auckland Council.
Ratepayers will fund the enforcement, which is for this summer only (from the first week of December until March) with the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board allocating $24,299.
Enforcement will include compliance officers visiting sites in the morning to talk to any campers found to be in breach of the rules. Repeat offenders can be given written warnings and trespassed.
The idea is to restrict freedom camping over summer at particular hot spots while awaiting the adoption of a Freedom Camping bylaw to cover the whole of Auckland.
Council announced on July 31 that its Freedom Camping bylaw would not be finalised, as planned, this summer.
Residents were hoping that the bylaw could mean an end to ongoing issues with freedom campers crowding car parks, leaving waste and rubbish and putting pressure on public facilities such as toilets – especially in Orewa.
Locally, freedom camping is allowed in designated places because of a bylaw that the former Rodney District Council put in place. Some of those sites have also been recommended to have restrictions or prohibitions placed on them when the new bylaw is introduced due to issues experienced in recent years. However, there were concerns that this summer, with no bylaw in place, freedom campers could continue to cause problems.
The local board has specified that the signs and enforcement be utilised at Arundel, Kinlock, Orewa and Remembrance Reserves in Orewa, as well as Victor Eaves park and the Hammerhead at Gulf Harbour.
Deputy chair Janet Fitzgerald says it is really disappointing that the bylaw is taking so long, so that the local board has had to dip into its limited funds to pay for enforcement.
It is anticipated that the new bylaw will be in place next summer.
