Wingham Riverside Reserve, once a charming spot for locals and visitors to picnic, stroll along the waters’ edge, park their cars before visiting The Wingham Brush, fish and launch boats, has become an unwelcoming messy camping site.

Thanks to a bright idea of the Wingham Advancement Group, who continue to encourage overnight stopovers by caravans and motorhomes.  

As everyone predicted, it soon became a messy, cluttered camping area where now people very much overstay their welcome.  Council has done an heroic job putting the place back in order after the two catastrophic floods, but don’t have the resources or the rangers to deal with the problem.  It seems all well and good to set aside an area for fully self-contained recreational vehicles for one night only, but there’s no practical way to enforce it.  People who stay at the Wingham Showground, which is set up for campers, go into town to shop for supplies and spend money in local shops just the same as people free camping at the Riverside Park, which is still recovering from flood damage. 

Our towns are still recovering (or not) from storm and flood damage, and an overstretched council suffering a lack of funds generally.  Last thing we need is to encourage campers who stay as long as they like, pitch tents wherever they like, and leave trash behind, throwing unmentionables into the Brush and lagoon. It’s not fair to us, and it’s not fair to Council. It’s not what the people wanted when they were consulted for the Plan of Management; Wingham people didn’t want overnight stays here because they knew this would happen.    Shame WAG, Shame.  

DM