Queenstown District lakes Council has followed through on its promise to toughen up laws relating to freedom campers.

Earlier last year South Island local councils met and proposed to introduce measures to kerb sleeping van camping over night in areas that have no toilet facilities. Effectively vans that have no onboard toilet and waste holding abilities will be forced to camp overnight in holiday parks. led the charge.

The Queenstown Council has been very vocal on this issue believing that the proposed sticker policy did not go far enough. Now the council has drafted its own strategy to increase its enforcement powers.

Although the new draft policy has been released for public consultation, the new enforcement powers will not be of great community interest so I imagine that the draft will pass into law with little or no amendment.