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National | Rotorua

Rotorua mayor willing to work with freedom campers

Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick says she's willing to work alongside freedom campers to make their stay a welcome one in the tourist hotspot.  This comes after locals from Lake Hawea in the South Island built a wall to keep campers out.

Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park co-owner, Jared Adams, claims freedom campers are making waves, for all the wrong reasons.

“What they do is sneak in here to use all our facilities for free," says Adams.

"Especially when we have paying guests it obviously doesn't go well. And also, once they come onto the property they are trespassing but it's pretty much they don't want to spend the money on accommodation”.

But Adams says they need the business and wants councils to step up lend them a helping hand. “The best thing that could happen is if central government did put some type of rule into place because all of the councils they are all struggling with it and they all do dramatically different things”.

Recently Rotorua Mayor, Steve Chadwick, met with other mayors at a national meeting held in Wellington by Minister Kelvin Davis. She heard loud and clear that freedom camping is costing local authorities.

“For us, we manage freedom campers rather than use rules and regulations to enforce a by-law," says Mayor Chadwick.

"We don't have a by-law so we like to work on a bit of signage to say you can come here. Some designated parks for those that are self-contained and others we encourage to go into our wonderful parks that we have got”.

Minister Davis is currently establishing a working party to tend to freedom camping issues.