The Otago Taieri A&P Society has been granted resource consent to establish and operate a "reactivated" camping ground for self-contained vehicles and caravans at 5 Dukes Rd North, Mosgiel.
The society made headlines last year when it discovered it did not hold any consents relating to its camp-over facility, established in 2008, and told residents to vacate the premises.
A day after serving residents with an eviction letter, the society sent a police officer to serve trespass notices to the remaining campers, which was labelled "callous" by Taieri MP Ingrid Leary.
The consent said the proposed camping ground would accommodate a maximum of 50 vehicles at a time, with an expected occupancy of about 25.
However, the return of long-term residents does not appear to be on the cards.
The consent says campers will be restricted to an up to seven-day stay in any 30-day period, although the applicant advised there "may be some latitude applied" for exceptional circumstances involving medical events or longer-term hospital visits — but only for three months in any 12-month period.
Otago Taieri A&P Society executive committee member John Freeland said restricting campers to a seven-day stay was "always our rules".
"Our rules haven’t changed ... it’s always been the case."
The campers in question had been notified several times to leave but had chosen to disregard them, and the situation came down to forcibly giving them an exit date in conjunction with the police, Mr Freeland said.
"We don’t want to be a trailer park.
"The council have no appetite for that as per the consent process ... they were not interested in any permanent occupation of the site and we agree with them."
The society had been "completely oblivious" to the fact it did not hold a consent until it became known to it via a lawyer, and in members’ minds the issue had now been resolved.
"We are being positive about it, we are moving forward and we look forward to people using the facility..."
Craig Reeves, a pensioner and former long-term resident of the camping ground, said it would be a "relatively different beast" under the consent — now that it would not accommodate permanent residents.
After being evicted from the camping ground after living there for the past 10 years, he and another camper were "very fortunate" to be given space on a lifestyle block owned by a young family — which also accommodated a machine that assisted him with his breathing, Mr Reeves said.
Other campers had gone to the Wingatui Racecourse which had "bent over backwards" to accommodate them, he said.
Mr Reeves said the situation could have been easily avoided had the A&P Society held a consent from the start.
It was "unbelievable" there had not been one before that.
The consent said the site had a history of visitor accommodation that initially began with competitors who would camp at the ground over the duration of their events, which had occurred since the shows began.
However, the camping activity "slowly morphed" and people without any connection to the events began camping at the site outside of the event’s calendar and for often lengthier periods of time.
Several campers were given permission to reside at the site during the Covid-19 lockdowns. However, a number decided to make it their permanent base at the conclusion of Covid-19 sanctions, the consent said.
