Southern View: February 26, 2019

SOUTHERN VIEW Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Tuesday February 26 2019 5
News
• By Matt Slaughter
FEWER PEOPLE have
complained about freedom
campers along Marine Pde over
the summer – but Kim Money says
they are still causing problems.
The Coastal-Burwood Community
Board chairwoman
presented her concerns at a city
council meeting about freedom
campers leaving rubbish behind
and defecating in
the sand dunes.
A city council
spokesperson
said the council
has received 20
Kim Money
fewer complaints
about freedom
campers around
Thomson Park and North Beach
compared to last summer. The
spokesperson said 15 fines had
been handed out to freedom
campers parked along Marine
Pde this summer, but could not
say if this was more or less than
last summer.
However, Ms Money said there
continued to be a number of
freedom campers without selfcontained
vehicles parking in the
North Beach and Thomson Park
car parks.
It was not uncommon for these
campers to leave piles of rubbish
and human waste behind, Ms
Money said.
PROBLEMS: Freedom campers along Marine Pde are causing issues.
“They’ll put their rubbish out
beside their vans in the car parks
and then they’ll just take off.”
She said it was common for
freedom campers near Thomson
Park to go into the sandhills
and they use those as their toilet
if they’re not close enough to a
toilet . . . if you ever take a look
down there you’ll find toilet paper
around.”
Efforts to stop this behaviour
had been somewhat successful,
but more needed to be done by
the city council to address the
issue fully.
“We’ve had Government funding
for the new loo to be put in at
Thomson Park . . . they are using
it, but some of the ones who are
parking further down aren’t, said
Ms Money.”
She said not enough ‘no freedom
camping’ signage was up
in the most popular spots and
this was also contributing to the
problem.
“We’ve already asked staff to
put up a sign in the car park at
Thomson Park, but there are not
enough signs. We don’t have any
signs in the North Beach car park
and some of the parking bays opposite
Thomson Park also don’t
have signs.”
The city council spokesperson
said it had listened to Mrs
Money’s concerns and would be
installing more signage in both
car parks next month.
Ms Money said the problem
did not end here though.
She said the number of city
council staff employed to police
freedom campers in these areas
was too small.
“There’s only two for Banks
Peninsula and along our coast,
Local
News
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Further concerns over freedom campers’ rubbish
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Fire rages, homes at risk
so they’re really stretched. As a
community board, we do need to
be getting the message across that
perhaps the compliance officers
over the summer period need to
be increased.”
The city council spokesperson
said it had 26 enforcement officers
with the authority to hand
out freedom camping fines, but
only four were rostered on across
Christchurch on a typical day.
Ms Money said too many
freedom campers were escaping
fines by printing out fake stickers
saying their vehicles were selfcontained.
“It’s the little vans that are the
issue. There’s no way a van like
that can hold a toilet.”
The city council spokesperson
said “the council doesn’t have
knowledge of this.”
Ms Money said New Brighton
and its surrounding areas loved
tourists, but the way some were
behaving was ruining the area for
everyone.
“We welcome these people to
our area and it’s great to have
the tourists in the place, but
we also have to look after our
residents and our spaces and
our environment, so to do that,
we just have to send a clear
message that they need to be
responsible and respectful to our
communities.”
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Property Manager
027 448 8225
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