Antisocial behaviour of illegal beach campers leaves authorities frustrated

A group of illegal campers at Auckland's Browns Bay have left local authorities irritated, after reports of damaged council property, broken bollards and alleged threatening behaviour.

 

Auckland Council bylaws prevent people from pitching tents overnight on the beachfront, and local MP Erica Stanford said she'd received complaints from a number of locals about the behaviour of people camping there.

 

Stanford said similar issues occurred at Rothesay Bay around the same time last year. However, as a skeleton council compliance team wasn't staffed to work overnight, enforcing the bylaws was difficult.

 

"There are rules for a reason", said Stanford.

 

"It's not a campground, and we can't make an exception for one or two families who camp there - there's no facilities or power, but people are sitting up tents and washing lines, harassing members of public.

 

"Tt's unacceptable."

 

The incidents have been ongoing for the past four days, according to local board member Alexis Poppelbaum.

 

She's also received complaints from locals about the behaviour of the campers. At one stage, she said, campers broke into and damaged the council's power supply facility at the reserve. The number of incidents racking up at the public amenity was beginning to concern her.

 

"We've worked with the community facility team, they're looking into repairs. It's a big, busy area with children at a playground nearby," said Poppelbaum.

 

"At local board we've had to talk about how we make sure this doesn't happen again. The board was having to get creative with ways of ensuring illegal camping didn't continue in the district.

 

One suggestion being floated was contracting a third-party security group as a compliance team, which would be dedicated to working night shifts and patrolling the sites.

 

Auckland Council has a similar approach when it comes to noise control.

 

The key thing with community facilities team is they've been fantastic, but they're not compliance, said Poppelbaum.

 

It's a very small team, it's on skeleton staff throughout the year, so it's a problem this time of year with people on leave.

 

Auckland Council area operations manager, John Cranfield told Stuff he was aware of the illegal campers behaviour, as well as damage caused at the beachfront.

 

It appears that vehicle access was gained through a space left by a damaged steel bollard, said Cranfield.

 

We have not yet confirmed who is responsible for the damage, however the bollard will be repaired as soon as possible.

 

The Browns Bay beachfront is a popular destination for families, with the local playground and skate part normally at full capacity over the summer break.

 

If you're from Browns Bay, you see the playground is always full and the skate park is always used, said local resident, Julie Mills.

 

It's a well utilised community asset. I think people want it to be used, but this was an overstepping.

 

A police spokeswoman said police moved the campers on from the beachfront on Thursday. However, Mills the campers had since returned.