Queenstown Lakes deputy mayor Quentin Smith says he will push for changes to the district’s new freedom camping bylaw following a chaotic holiday period.

The bylaw - introduced after the previous version was overturned in the High Court - allows freedom camping at 15 locations around the Queenstown Lakes District including a handful in Wānaka, most of them carparks.

Allenby Place, where Quentin lives, is among the designated freedom camping zones - and he said the Christmas and New Year period had been “a complete disaster”.

“While compliance with the three spots per night has increased, all the other impacts have remained, and some cases increased,” he said.

He described campers circling Allenby Place looking for available spots, which were usually filled by early afternoon, people lining up for toilets late at night, and some washing dishes in the drinking fountains and bathrooms.

The freedom camping zone at Beacon Point “has also had similar issues,” he said.

“The DOC carpark has been heavily abused with up to 75 vans some nights and morning users being completely shut out,” Quentin said. “Regular walkers and users of Mt Iron track have been displaced in favour of turning them into full-scale campgrounds.”

He said the freedom camping zones at the Wānaka Recreation Centre, Camphill Bridge and the Luggate Red Bridge Reserve had also been “heavily utilised”.

Between December 1 and January 5 Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) and its contractors issued 364 $400 Freedom Camping Act infringements across the district and another 37 $800 Reserves Act infringements.

Residents contacted the council 282 times regarding freedom camping issues, including more than 120 reports about Upper Clutha sites. Over the same period, QLDC also dealt with camping in many “no freedom camping” zones, including Ardmore Street, Aubrey Road, Brownston Street, Dungarvon Street, Gunn Road, and Lakeside Road.

A QLDC spokesperson acknowledged it had been a “busy summer so far”, with its daily monitoring including the responsible camping ambassadors, twilight patrols of sites by Cougar Security, and then nighttime enforcement.

While the teams had been doing a good job monitoring and enforcing the bylaw, the council is “throwing a lot of costly resources at a problem we shouldn’t have,” Quentin said.

Introduced after NZMCA legal action overturned the previous bylaw, the new bylaw represents a compromise under pressure, that has proved deeply unpopular with residents.

Quentin said the behaviour of campers this summer “reinforces that the previous bylaw was largely correct for our community and the position we have been pushed into by the NZMCA legal action is untenable”.

Although the bylaw is already in effect, the QLDC CEO has delegated powers to make changes, and council could also consider amendments at a future meeting, he said.

There are a number of people “gathering evidence and data to challenge the bylaw” and he encouraged residents to record complaints to [email protected].

“At the very least,” Quentin said, he will personally push to remove freedom camping sites from residential areas.

PHOTO: Wānaka App