Campsite respite: Open for Labour Weekend

Two South Wairarapa campsites have earned a reprieve for Labour Weekend and beyond after the council closed them for overnight camping last week due to a one-in-100-year flood risk.

The decision to close the sites at North Tora and Te Awaiti had been controversial, with many residents arguing that flooding rarely happens at the sites.

They believed the advisory signs currently installed were enough to mitigate the risk.

But on the eve of the long weekend, South Wairarapa District Council [SWDC] confirmed that a short-term solution proposed by the Martinborough Community Board would be enough to mitigate flash-flooding risks over the long weekend, because the weather forecast was “favourable”.

Board member Aidan Ellims, a former police officer, had previously sent an operational plan to SWDC chief executive Harry Wilson outlining how the council could minimise and mitigate the flood risk to freedom campers over Labour Weekend.

Ellims even volunteered to administer this plan and said he would work with available emergency services.

The solution, and others proposed by the community board, was initially turned down by Wilson who made the decision to close the camping grounds to overnight campers on October 11.

On Thursday evening, a SWDC spokesperson said the council had assessed the interim solution and considered it was “fit-forpurpose as a temporary solution for the Labour Weekend”.

“However, the risk from flooding and campsite inundation remains, and this

short-term solution is only possible due to the favourable weather forecast for the three days over Labour Weekend,” the spokesperson said.

The decision to close the two sites was made by Wilson as the responsible officer under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 [the Act].

He said that under the Act, SWDC had a primary duty of care to ensure the health and safety of people was not put at risk and that he was required to eliminate the risk to health and safety as his principal obligation.

He said the closures were to protect the public from possible serious injury or loss of life in the case of a serious weather event.

The SWDC spokesperson said the two campgrounds would remain open beyond Labour Weekend, subject to weather conditions, while the council worked through risk mitigation options with the community board.

If a “workable solution” is unable to be found over the next few weeks, the campsites would be closed to overnight camping, the SWDC spokesperson said.

SWDC said the reason this issue was being addressed now, and not in earlier years, was that the council had better scientific information and real evidence of climate change and its impact on coastal communities.

People would continue to have access to both campgrounds for non-camping purposes and SWDC would continue its search for an alternative overnight camping area, the SWDC spokesperson said. –