70% of motor home owners favour campgrounds

By John Cousins
Motor home owners have moved to defuse an expected showdown with Tauranga holiday park owners over a bid to allow them to park overnight on city streets and reserves.
Papamoa Beach Top 10 Holiday Park owner Bruce Crosby has questioned the real worth of opening up the city to free overnight parking and objects strongly to allowing mobile homes to park on the doorstep of holiday parks.
But Margaret Hoare of the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association told the council this week that 70 per cent of its 30,000 members used camping grounds, and even those who parked independently would periodically stay overnight in camping grounds because of the facilities.
The council has agreed to go out to public consultation on the draft bylaw. If passed, it will mean thousands of mobile home owners will no longer be forced to park illegally around Tauranga.
Provided their motor homes displayed the fully-self contained waste water sticker, they will be permitted to park overnight on any street or reserve in Tauranga - but they must shift to a different location each night.
The change has been welcomed by the Motor Caravan Association, whose members include many retirees who want to explore their country aboard fully self-contained homes on wheels.
Motor homes have become a common sight along Tauranga's beach and harbour fronts, although it was meant to be illegal to park without prior council consent.
Mr Crosby had also disputed the spending power of mobile pensioners, calling them "bludgers and freeloaders".
"If you want to know where to get a cheap feed, follow the pensioners."
Mrs Hoare said expense sheets gathered from members showed they spent a total of $83 million a year travelling around New Zealand.
"I would think you would like a couple of slices of that cake,"she said.
Mayor Stuart Crosby, the brother of Bruce Crosby, supported the bylaw, saying Tauranga was missing out on a massive market from overseas people who travelled the country in motor homes.
"They are not coming in the numbers they should do."
The mayor said motor camps benefited from campervans - and the council-owned Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park was one of the best locations in New Zealand.
When it was disclosed that the country's biggest motor home hire company, Maui, did not have on-board waste-water storage, Mrs Hoare said most overseas tourists who hired Maui vans pre-booked itineraries that took them from motor camp to motor camp.
The bylaw would be reviewed after 12 months to allow the council to change the rules if popular seaside and harbourfront parking spots were engulfed by campervans at the expense of residents.
The council unanimously supported freeing up the rules, although Marine Parade's Cr David Stewart highlighted a recent disturbance near his home when five "freedom campers" got together to drink and play bongos until 2am.
The draft bylaw prohibits people from returning to the same spot within a month and the area administered by Tauranga Marina off-limits to overnight parking.