Latest news with #FreedomCampingAct2011
Otago Daily Times
19-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Feedback sought on draft freedom camping bylaw
Community feedback is being sought as the Queenstown Lakes District Council finalises a draft bylaw which will allow freedom camping only under specific restrictions. It is no secret that the district is a prime spot for freedom campers, but over the last few years the number of visitors taking part in this has increased. According to the council, between 2008 and 2018 the estimated number of international visitors engaging in freedom camping in New Zealand rose from 10,000 to 123,000. As a result, the council has taken steps to draft a bylaw that allows for better management of freedom camping activities across the whole region. The Freedom Camping Act 2011 permits freedom camping by default on most council land in New Zealand. While the Act prevents councils from prohibiting freedom camping across all their land, they can create bylaws with rules to manage the activity's impacts in order to protect areas Until now the QLDC has not had a bylaw in place but a draft freedom camping bylaw has now been completed. It was informed by a robust technical assessment that identified and examined which areas of the district needed to be protected. It includes provisions to manage freedom camping on land controlled or managed by the QLDC to protect the area, access to the area, or the health and safety of visitors. In a statement, the council said freedom camping would be allowed in certain areas but would be subject to specific conditions. Limitations would include time restrictions, the use of specified parking spaces, leaving no waste, lighting no fires, and a requirement for vehicles to be certified as self-contained with a toilet and grey-water facilities. A key proposal would include banning freedom camping on most roads including any on-road vehicle parking spaces within the district's urban areas. The bylaw would allow freedom camping with restrictions in 158 carparking spaces across 15 specified areas and on most rural roads subject to restrictions such as how close to the road a freedom camper can park themselves. The draft bylaw does not propose to regulate freedom camping on any reserve land or privately owned land and camping on reserves will continue to be administered under the Reserves Act 1977. The full draft has been made public on the QLDC's Let's Talk engagement platform and those interested in the proposals are encouraged to express their thoughts. Two drop-in sessions were held on Monday and Tuesday this week in Frankton and Wānaka and an online webinar is set to take place at noon on Monday, July 28. The results of the consultation will be considered by a hearing panel made up of councillors and will help to inform any changes to the draft bylaw before it is adopted. It is expected to be finalised and in place before summer. — APL
Scoop
27-06-2025
- Scoop
QLDC Approves Consultation On Freedom Camping Bylaw
Queenstown Lakes District Council will next month begin community consultation on its draft Freedom Camping Bylaw 2025 / Ture ā-Rohe mō te Noho Puni Korehere 2025. Queenstown Lakes District is known to be one of the most popular camping destinations in New Zealand, and the most popular place for overnight 'free camping' with more than double the total number of overnight campers in 2024 than the next most popular territorial authority area. The popularity of freedom camping has significantly increased in recent years; between 2008 and 2018 the estimated number of international visitors practicing freedom camping in New Zealand rose from 10,000 to 123,000. The Freedom Camping Act 2011 permits freedom camping by default on most Council land in New Zealand. Conversely, the Reserves Act 1977 generally prohibits camping on reserves, although an exception is a site at Luggate Red Bridge, where the Reserves Act restriction was previously lifted. While councils cannot prohibit freedom camping across all of its land, it can create bylaws with rules to manage its impacts and protect the area, access to the area, and the health and safety of visitors to the area. Queenstown Lakes District Council does not currently have a freedom camping bylaw in place. While a comprehensive freedom camping programme was in place for the recent summer period that aimed to educate campers and reduce instances of poor behaviour, the absence of a bylaw hampered the council's efforts to balance the needs of the community and campers. Council has undertaken a lengthy assessment process across the district, excluding reserve land, to identify where freedom camping may impact an area, access to it, or the health and safety of visitors to it. The draft freedom camping bylaw proposes to manage camping in those areas either through preventing camping entirely or proposing restrictions on it. Under the draft bylaw, freedom camping will be allowed in certain areas but subject to specific conditions including time restrictions, only using specified parking spaces, leaving no waste, lighting no fires, and a requirement for vehicles to be certified as self-contained with a toilet and grey water facilities. It is proposed freedom camping will be allowed with restrictions in parking areas in: Queenstown Arrowtown Gibbston Kingston Glenorchy Wānaka, and Hāwea. The draft also allows that freedom camping would also be allowed on most rural roads, subject to restrictions such as how close to the road a freedom camper can park themselves. The draft bylaw proposes that freedom camping be prohibited on most roads located within the district's built-up urban areas to protect access for the whole community to these roads and the parking spaces on them. This would include residential, town centre, commercial, and other business areas. Camping cannot occur on private roads. The decision to consult the community was approved by a full Council meeting on Thursday 26 June, with the consultation period to run from 8 July to 8 August 2025. The community will have an opportunity to make submissions on the proposal, at either one of two public drop-in sessions, or online via the Council's Freedom Camping Bylaw consultation page on the Let's Talk website. Information on what's proposed as well as the draft bylaw, statement of proposal, and maps of areas where freedom camping is proposed to be prohibited and restricted will also be available on the website. Public drop-in sessions will take place at: Queenstown Events Centre 5.00pm-7.00pm on 14 July Wānaka Rec Centre 5.00pm-7.00pm on 15 July. An online webinar will also be run at midday on 18 July. Details and registration information for the webinar will be available on the Council's Let's Talk webpage. The results of the consultation will be considered by a hearing panel made up of councillors and will help to inform any changes to the draft bylaw ahead of it being adopted. The bylaw is expected to be finalised and in place before summer 2025-2026.
Otago Daily Times
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
158 carparks proposed for Queenstown freedom campers
By Katie Todd of RNZ Queenstown Lakes District Council has devised a new plan to manage freedom campers. The council intends to set aside 158 carparks across 14 sites for certified self-contained motor vehicles to use for free. That includes 52 carparks across six sites in Queenstown, 50 carparks at a site in Kingston, 28 carparks at three sites in Wānaka, 15 carparks at a site in Hāwea, and other smaller sites in Arrowtown, Lake Hayes and Gibbston. Under the draft bylaw - adopted by councillors on Thursday afternoon to go out for public consultation - campers would be limited to stays of two nights within a 30-day period and would be able to stay in tents or temporary structures. Freedom camping would be allowed on some rural roads, but it would have to be 5m from the edge of the road, on gravel or sealed surfaces. The council's old 2021 bylaw was quashed by the High Court last year after the Motor Caravan Association sought a judicial review. The High Court found that the bylaw was "tainted" because it tried to ban camping based on amenity values like views and noise, which wasn't consistent with the Freedom Camping Act 2011. Councillor Quentin Smith was the only one around the table on Thursday who did not support the new plan. He said he was not satisfied the bylaw "equally spread the pain across the district." While places like Arrowtown only had five freedom camping spots, the Upper Clutha area was bearing a heavier burden, he said. In addition to the council's proposed freedom camping sites, freedom camping was already permitted at the Luggate Red Bridge reserve between Cromwell and Wānaka due to a special Ministerial exemption to the ban on camping in the Reserves Act. Other councillors also expressed reservations about the plan before voting to put it to the public. Councillor Esther Whitehead said it was "massively complex", and she felt the public would say the same. Councillor Craig Ferguson questioned whether the proposal was about freedom camping or "free parking at the expense of residents." "Let's get it out for the community to have their say," he said. Councillor Matt Wong queried if the 158 spaces would be enough to meet camper demand - but policy manager Carrie Williams said it was hard to predict what freedom camper numbers would look like in the coming season. "We're not here to respond to all demands of all freedom camping. We're here to provide an element to the response... to provide for some freedom camping," she said. Public consultation on the new bylaw will run from July 8 to August 8, and is meant to come into force before summer. Separate from the bylaw, the council planned to investigate other options for low-cost and freedom camping in the Queenstown Lakes District as part of its Responsible Camping Strategy. This summer, in the absence of restrictions, freedom campers arrived in Queenstown in force. Some locals reported growing frustrations over rubbish, overcrowded carparks, late-night partying and people urinating in bushes. The council banned overnight parking on two streets where residents claimed that dozens of campervans were staying every night.
