The Western Bay of Plenty's freedom camping bylaw is to be fine-tuned following the Christmas holiday test of the rules seeing a number of complaints made to the district council.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council's reserves and facilities manager Peter Watsons says the council received 15 freedom camper complaints from December 20, 2013, to January 6, 2014, and a number of emails.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council's freedom camping bylaw is to be fine-tuned following the council receiving complaints during Christmas holidays.

'With 15 out of 64 service requests processed during that period, that makes freedom camping complaints total 23 per cent – but we did also have emails coming in [about freedom campers] which weren't logged under the service request process,” says Peter.

Beachside residents in the Western Bay have since expressed concern over several aspects of the council's Freedom Camping Bylaw, which come into force late-2012, following the Freedom Camping Act 2011.

The Western Bay Council's Operations Committee learned last month of residents' concerns', including non-compliance of the number of motor homes on a site, non-compliance by non-self-contained vehicles using the sites, motorhomes not being parked in accordance with marked parking spaces, stays of longer than three nights, lack of enforcement by council and unclear signage.

As result, residents have reported a need for clearly-marked freedom camping spaces; and there's been a number of requests for council to increase enforcement.

Peter says staff are working on a report analysing the issues and setting out potential changes to the bylaw, to be presented to the council.

'There have been some teething problems, and we're working to alleviate that.”

Currently, the bylaw allows freedom campers to park in designated parking zones, with no more than three self-contained vehicles permitted in any one location on any one night (unless signage on-site permits more users).

All sites are restricted to self-contained vehicles only, except for TECT All Terrain Park, where tents are permitted.

Peter says when council staff conducted compliance audits during the summer holiday season, the issue of finding more than three motorhomes at a designated parking zone was encountered often.

'It is difficult, as if you come across 10 vehicles [at a designated site] for our staff how do you find which three have been here first?

'But there's a way around that – and that is to clearly identify a zone-specific area for campers at each site – and if not parked in the area , they can look forward to enforcement measures,” says Peter.

'This site situation concern has been a national trend with [freedom camping] bylaws coming into effect.”

However, Peter says some concerns over non-self-contained vehicles parking in freedom camping zones is unfounded – saying staff audits show a 99 per cent compliance rate during the peak Christmas period.

'The statement that the Juicy rental company only hire out non self-contained vehicles is incorrect – as some of their vehicles are self-contained.”

Peter says another situation which arises in Waihi Beach is freedom campers legally park overnight at the RSA, then move their vehicle to the town's parking during the day for beach activities.

'A camper may park up at the RSA for the night and then park in town to go swimming and walking at the beach – and as long as they are parked correctly, they are deemed as day-trippers under the bylaw, so there can be a perception issues there.”

Peter says currently all designated sites in the Western Bay of Plenty District have a sign with a Freedom Camper barcode, which people with smartpones can scan to direct them to the council's website to the check the bylaw, and also offer information for freedom camping websites.

'It is about educating people – and when we do audits we ask campers if they've see the signs and check how effective our signage is.”

With some residents requesting higher policing by council of freedom campers, Peter says a way to address this will be, to put into the bylaw's review, an allowance for local people to be deemed honorary reserve managers under section 32 of the Act, to hold authority to audit certain sites.

'The problem we face is it's a 1.5 hour drive across our district – so if we can get someone in Brighton Reserve [at Waihi Beach], for example, who can be the voice of council, it could be a local solution to a local problem.”