Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrea Beryl: Save Clean New Zealand Spokesperson on the proposed freedom camping bylaw in the Queenstown Lakes District

Transcript

Andrea Beryl: Save Clean New Zealand Spokesperson on the proposed freedom camping bylaw in the Queenstown Lakes District · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Queenstown Lakes Council voting today on Freedom Campus thirty percent
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: jump and overnight stays there region is the most popular
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: for them, double the number of the next most popular,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: which was Nelson Tasman. Pressure on roads, lakes, waterways, all
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: that stuff. Andrea Beryl is with Save Clean New Zealand,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: joins me this morning. Andrea, good morning, Good morning Ryan.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: How are you very well house beautiful Queenstown this morning.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm in Monaca and I've not had too many cups
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: of tea yet, so I think we're all good. It's
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: it's still pretty dark, but yeah, it's all good.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Andrea. You're not against freedom camping, but what's wrong with
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: some of the places where they are doing it.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've worked in tourism for nearly over twenty years,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: so you know, we know that the region heavily relies
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: on tourism. The problem is some of the areas that
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: they've chosen are just a little bit bizarre, like right
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: in front of people's houses. So I look after a
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: property on Bickon Point Road, which is heavily used by locals, tourists, travelers, bikers,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: people walking their dogs, runners, and then they want to
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: five parking spots right outside this house. There's no rubbish facilities.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: There's no toilet facilities and on rubbish we can't even
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: get our own rubbish picked up by the council because
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: the road is too narrow. So how on earth are
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: they going to deal with the rubbish from people leaving
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: it behind? Because not all campers, sadly, are responsible.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: This is by laws. This is one of the fifteen
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  Speaker 1: designated sides. Why how are they picking these signs?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: That's a very good question. So it started with us
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: thinking about Beacon Point Road, but then it expands to
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: other areas in the region. We've got Allenby Park, which
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: is a car part right by Iron, which raises you know,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: fire hazards. If someone sparks a fire, then Mount Iron
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: goes up and flams. You know, that's alarming. All the
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: rural roads, you know, they've got these rural roads that
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: have said, yeah, yeah, come and park on the rural roads.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: But all the people that live on these rural roads
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: have said, there's actually no way safe for people to
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: pull over. It has to be five meekers from the
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: road on a hard surface or a heavy gravel sort
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: of area, and that's pretty much someone's driveway because the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: rural roads don't have those. There's some of them are
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: so narrow that you can't turn around. So it's like
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: it's like they've just looked at a map and went
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: they're there, there and there, that they haven't really done
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: it by sight.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Andrea, what's it like? I mean, it's been a while
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: since we've hit a camera down there giving us an update.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: But what's a lot? I mean, if people still doing
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: their business in the trees and on the streets and stuff,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: or is a lot plainer than what it used to be.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Well, no, the water quality is deteriorating and why is that?
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: You know? And if we allow people to have these
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: so called self contained camper vans, you know, you know
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: these little backpack of vands, they don't they have a
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: little blue sticker saying that you know, they're going to
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: have a pee or a pooh in they're in their van.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: They're not using those you know. The Camper Van Association, Yes,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: they've got some beautiful big motor homes and camper vans
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: and they travel around and they're really for this and
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: we agree with them, like we want people to come
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: in their camper vans, but not everybody is going to
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: be using the toilets on board. And one other issue
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: is there's not that many public dumping stations for people.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: If they are the responsible people, you know, they need
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: to empty the sewage. And I was looking the other
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: day and from Half to Queenstown there's only two dumping stations.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Two but gross, where are people supposed to dump that poop?
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Well, that's what we're all now thinking about. Andrew, thank
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: you for your time this morning. Andrea Beryl save Quean
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: New Zealand spokesperson For more.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: From Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio