THERE'S a battle brewing at Dudding Lake with a pending change of lease leaving regular campers angry and upset.
Some of the campers met Rangitikei District Council senior managers yesterday at the camp ground on SH3 between Turakina and Bulls, but they remain dissatisfied with the outcome and say they are considering legal action.
It stems from the fine print in the lease at the lake, which has been negotiated between council and a new lessee.
Clare Hadley, the council's chief executive, said the new lessee wants vacant possession, and that means the current caravans at the camping site will need to move.
But Garry Bull, a spokesman for the irate campers, said that demand was too harsh.
Mr Bull, of Upper Hutt, said the first he knew about the pending changes was a week ago when he called Claire Scrimgeour, council's asset services manager, and asked her if the council had secured a new lessee (the last one left the camp in the middle of the year).
"She told me things were going along nicely and that council hoped to have a new operator in there by Labour Weekend," he said.
"Then, at 3.50pm that afternoon, Clare Hadley rang me and told me I'd be getting a registered letter giving us 42 days to get out."
After getting the letter on September 15, Mr Bull and his fellow travellers have until October 26 to leave the grounds.
"That was the first I knew about the change. Their explanation was that the incoming operator wants a vacant camp, but they won't even tell us who the new operator is."
Mr Bull and his family have had a caravan permanently at Dudding Lake for the past 11 years and usually get up to the lake every fortnight.
A number of caravans had erected semi-permanent awnings which required a concrete slab beneath them, and Mr Bull's is one of them.
He said this required a building consent, which the Rangitikei council "was more than happy to give".
He said the Dudding Lake camp ground, which has 24 sites, was known as a family-friendly one and he reckoned the semi-permanent caravans there brought in half the revenue over the Christmas period.
In the time Mr Bull and his family have been staying at the camp, there had been two lessees operating the facility.
In both instances, when they left, the families with caravans parked there did not have to move out.
Mr Bull said the meeting was a chance for the campers to question the council's decision but said that, from the stance taken by the council's CEO, it had made up its mind.
"We have to move everything caravans, concrete pads, driveways, patios, whatever everything.
Ms Hadley said the campground had become dilapidated in recent years, with much needed maintenance work going unattended.
She said that when the latest lease expired this year there was an opportunity for council to see "whether we could offer more to the community and reduce the cost of the facility to ratepayers".
"The preferred tenderer proposes to improve the reserve and to operate the facility in a more profitable manner, which will reduce the ratepayer burden."
Ms Hadley said the incoming operator had considerable experience in holiday park operation and believed that semi-permanent campers "create confusion around the core purpose of a facility, with casual campers often feeling excluded".
"Right now, the semi-permanent caravans are occupying the best sites, and it is the tenderer's preference to make these available to all campers."
She said the present caravan owners' right to occupy the site expired with the end of the lease in June but that the council had not been charging these campers any occupation fees for the past three months.
Ms Hadley said that consent for these additions granted previously by council did not confer any long-term right to occupy.
Rangitikei's Mayor, Bob Buchanan, said the matter of the lease was an operational one and, as such, was left to the council's management team to work through, and the council was not involved.
"The council's involved in governance, not the operational issues."
Mr Buchanan said the addition of semi-permanent awnings would have been a matter between the previous lessee and those people using the campsites.
"Now we have a new lessee coming on board, and they want a clean field to work with."
Ms Hadley said council recognised that this was a significant change "for this small group, but we are seeking to balance the interests of a few with the interests of many".
The caravan owners will still be able to use the facility for camping, just under the arrangements of the new leaseholder.
The council expects the new operators will be in place by Labour Weekend.
They're not happy campers at Dudding Lake
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.