Over Labour Weekend council staff issued seven infringement notices to campers who violated the Waitaki district responsible freedom camping bylaw 2016, which came into force over the holiday period.
Council spokeswoman Alena Lynch said there were several comments on Facebook about the bylaw and its negative impact on some campers, yet no-one had made any official statement to council.
"If they’re unhappy about something we’ve done, they need to contact us and make a complaint."
Cr Jim Hopkins said at Wednesday’s council meeting he understood there was some "keyboard angst" in relation to the new bylaw. He asked council’s management team if they considered entering the Facebook forum to address concerns and to help educate the public about the relatively new law.
Kakanui Ratepayers and Improvement Society president Lucianne White was aware of one camper woken by council security staff early one morning over the weekend, who thought she had permission to freedom camp in the area.
Mrs White said "hiccups" were to be expected as the new bylaw was implemented.
A Naseby woman, who would not be named, was camping in an unrestricted area on the northern bank of the Kakanui River mouth on Wednesday in a self-contained motorhome, understood the bylaw was introduced because of people who misused local facilities, such as toilets, or did not use facilities at all, and instead left rubbish and faeces.
"I think they’re trying to keep us happy, the self-contained ones. I can see where they’re coming from. They’ve got to make rules."
This week was her first time camping in Kakanui. She was there to visit a friend who lived near Campbells Bay Reserve, who had stated previously that it used to be packed with "heaps of vans, but they’ve all gone now with the notices up". Close to the Naseby woman’s camping spot was the campsite of German Sabrina Golbeck’s family.
The three were on a camping holiday in a self-contained camper van and were using the app CamperMate to find locations where they could stay.
She said the app gave the wrong location of where camping was permitted in Kakanui and it was only after spotting other camper vans on the north bank of the Kakanui River mouth that she and her family were able to stop.
She said she was not aware of the bylaw.
Mrs Golbeck believed there was not enough education or communication about the bylaw, or where freedom campers could stop in Waitaki.
"It would make it worse when you can’t find where you’re allowed to camp, if you’ve got no other choice and it’s late and you want to sleep. You’d just stop where you are."
Ms Lynch said education about the bylaw was happening through the installation of signs where freedom camping was prohibited or restricted, having an active presence on apps, CamperMate and Rankers, which inform people of the type of camping they can do and where, and a leaflet drop targeting people council staff believed were freedom campers or would freedom camp. She said the bylaw was publicised before it came into force again when it was adopted in September and last Friday, before Labour Weekend.
