Policing freedom campers in the Mackenzie District could prove tricky, the local MP says. <\/p>\n
The Mackenzie District Council planning and regulation committee voted last week to introduce a bylaw banning freedom campers from parts of Tekapo, Twizel, and the Lake Opuha and Ruataniwha shorelines. <\/p>\n
Mackenzie District mayor Claire Barlow said yesterday the district still welcomed freedom campers if they followed the new rules. <\/p>\n
Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean said the district's size could make it hard to catch campers who didn't meet the bylaw's new requirement to be able to take care of their own sanitary needs if they stayed on council land. <\/p>\n
\"There are so many corners for them to tuck themselves away.\" <\/p>\n
Council community facilities manager Garth Nixon said the council could consider hiring contractors to hand out $200 instant fines for those parked on its land, but it owned only a small percentage of public land in the district. <\/p>\n
Nixon said the Department of Conservation was a major landowner in the Mackenzie District, administering land on the shores of lakes Alexandrina, Ohau, Poaka, Pukaki, and Tekapo and elsewhere in the district. <\/p>\n
DOC spokesperson Shirley Slatter said DOC rangers checked for freedom campers in the Aoraki\/Mt Cook National Park, charging them a $10 camping fee if they were caught. <\/p>\n
DOC did not police land next to state highways in the district, but restricted freedom camping on the shores of Lake Poaka to self-contained vehicles staying at the site for no more than four nights in any calendar month. <\/p>\n
A Meridian Energy spokesperson said the company was reviewing the draft bylaw. The electricity generator had installed fences and signs on Meridian-owned land to keep freedom campers off areas such as grass verges where they could endanger road users. The company tried to maintain public access where possible. <\/p>\n
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New freedom camper bans hard to enforce<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Policing freedom campers in the Mackenzie District could prove tricky, the local MP says. The Mackenzie District Council planning and regulation committee voted last week to introduce a bylaw banning freedom campers from parts of Tekapo, Twizel, and the Lake Opuha and Ruataniwha shorelines. Mackenzie District mayor Claire Barlow said yesterday the district still welcomed freedom campers if they followed the new rules Continue reading