Freedom campers will be hit in the pocket later this year if a Freedom Camping Strategy is adopted by the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
The council's community services committee on Tuesday agreed to release the draft strategy for public consultation in efforts to give the council more power over those who camp illegally or pollute areas with rubbish and "human waste".
Community services general manager Paul Wilson said the council had adopted a position on local rules about freedom camping through the Traffic and Parking Bylaw 2006, but had not actively enforced those rules.
"This policy really reflects the level of community concern . . . Over the last couple of years [we've found] that we need to move to a more enforcement approach."
One of the major issues was freedom campers with no on-board waste disposal parking in areas and leaving human waste.
Cr Lex Perkins said the strategy was a welcome move, particularly for the "cheaper, semi-type campervans" which were becoming increasingly prevalent in the district.
After a study into the "effectiveness or otherwise" of "no camping" signs at the One Mile car park at Lake Esplanade in Queenstown, Mr Wilson said signage had no significant impact - in fact, more people camped there with a sign in place.
During the study, previous "no camping" signs were removed and for seven days between 6am and 7am an observer checked the car park and recorded the number of vehicles that had camped overnight.
The process was repeated with the signs in place.
"This was repeated for a period of eight weeks giving a total of four weeks without signage and four weeks with signage.
A total of 321 vehicles stayed overnight . . . when no signs were present.
"In contrast, a total of 341 vehicles stayed overnight . . . when the official `no camping' sign was in place.
It is therefore concluded that the sign installed had no significant effect on people's attitudes to freedom camping."
Mr Wilson said coupled with enforcement, word of mouth would be effective in spreading the message.
"What we need to do . . . is ensure people know there's an enforcement approach. The [mindset] will change from `I know I can camp anywhere' to `It's not OK unless I follow the rules of this community."
'"Good information" through signage at the entrances to the district along with signage and information at the district's service stations would go a long way to getting the message through, he said.
"You can get to the customers pretty readily."
Also, once infringement notices were issued the message would spread "very quickly", he said.
While the cost of issuing infringement notices to freedom campers may be about $90,000, the council would recover that cost quickly, he said.
Cr John S. Wilson said it may mean fewer residents received parking tickets if the parking wardens were focusing on the freedom campers.
Cr Cath Gilmour said collecting money from freedom campers could be an issue as they were constantly moving on.
One option was to operate in "cahoots" with rental-van agencies, passing registration plate numbers of offenders on to them to collect the money when the tourists returned the vehicle.
"If it goes back through the rental-van companies, they will . . . spread the message very quickly."
The committee recommended the draft strategy be released for public consultation, and appointed Crs Gilmour, John S. Wilson and Perkins to the working party.
