Campers resigned to losing favourite sites

DUDDING Lake camper Jill Hopkins is resigned to losing the family's prime campsite overlooking the trees and the lake after 11 years of holidaying there in their caravan.
A change of lease at the camp has left most of the regular campers fed-up and angry. The new lessee of the camp, who is still in negotiation with the Rangitikei District Council, wants vacant possession of the small lakeside camp, which means the regular caravans have been given 42 days to move out.
The new owners were scheduled to take over the camp on October 26, the Friday of Labour Weekend.
Mrs Hopkins said yesterday moving out was not a huge problem for her and her husband, because their caravan would be easily rolled off the site.
"And we will probably still be able to leave it stored here somewhere, just not on this site.''
The 12 regular campers from Wanganui, Wellington, and Palmerston North had become like family over the years, she said.
A few had even built semi-permanent awnings on concrete slabs, which were going to be difficult to pull up and move on, she said.
They had all received building consents from the council to build, she said.
The large iron gates into the Dudding Lake camp have been padlocked until the new lessee takes over on October 26, and the regular campers were given keys to get in until then, she said.
Mrs Hoskin admitted that the move was upsetting, because they all loved their private and beautiful hideaway, where they were all permanently parked up on prime sites overlooking the lake, trees and farmland.
However, the spokesman for the angry campers, Garry Bull, said they were talking to a Wellington lawyer this week about the new owner's tough condition of wanting vacant possession of the camp.
We would all like the opportunity to talk with the new owner, but the council won't tell us who it is, Mr Bull said.
"Surely it makes sense that he (the new owner) would like to talk to permanent campers you know, get to meet us all, know that we are all his regulars. We're his market and we're here already.''
The camp reserve was given to the Marton community in 1972 by J B S Dudding for the recreation of Marton and the surrounding district and of the public at large.
Last week council chief executive Clare Hadley said the semi-permanent campers were occupying the best sites and that the new lessee wanted to make those sites available to everyone.
She said the council realised it meant a significant change for the small group.
"They will still be able to use the facility for camping, just under the arrangements of the new leaseholder.''
The Dudding Lake camp will be discussed by the council in a public-excluded section of the council meeting on Thursday. Mr Bull said if it was an open meeting they would all have been there.
"We would have welcomed the opportunity to discuss the issue of vacant possession and to be able to give our side of it.''