A decision on the Tauranga City Council's amended freedom camping policy has been put off until next year after councillors ran out of time.

Strategy and policy committee chairman deputy mayor David Stewart says the issue will be discussed at the next meeting, in January.

A decision on freedom camping in Tauranga is delayed until January.

The city's proposed freedom camping policy limiting freedom camping to five reserves on the Tauranga side of the city was attacked during the submissions process by mobile homeowners.

Submitters say the city's approach discourages the thousands of New Zealand mobile home owners from visiting Tauranga, depriving city businesses of considerable income.

After hearing the submissions the council called for a staff report, which was contained in this week's committee agenda, but the accompanying legal advice remains in confidential.

The legal issue the council faces is that if it restricts freedom camping to the five reserves, it can only issue tickets on those five named reserves. Any freedom campers elsewhere in the city cannot be ticketed because their freedom camping comes under the Reserves Act.

The council's approach also appears to be contrary to the Freedom Camping Act, which states camping can be prohibited or restricted if it is necessary for one or more of the following purposes: To protect the area; To protect the health and safety of people who visit the area; To protect access to the area.

In the city's draft Street Use and Public Places Bylaw 2012, there is a blanket ban on freedom camping in all parks and reserves in the district apart from Memorial Park; Greerton Park; Fergusson Park; Manne Park; and Waikareao Foreshore Reserve.

The FCA provides that freedom camping is permitted unless it is restricted or prohibited in accordance with a bylaw under the FCA.

From August this year only bylaws made under the FCA can be enforced with regard to freedom camping, if a council wants to be able to issue tickets. Otherwise offenders will have to be prosecuted.

Parking tickets can still be issued against vehicles infringing the parking regulations, but as one mobile home owner asked in submissions, when is a fully self-contained mobile home parking overnight, and when is it camping.

Until it is all resolved the council is relying on the street use and public places bylaw 2005. The council recently approved an updated Street Use And Public Places Bylaw 2012, except for the freedom camping provisions.

It raises the question of whether the council can legally rely on a bylaw to enforce freedom camping that makes no mention of freedom camping, and is superceded.

The 2005 bylaw in section 13.1 f states:

No person without the prior written consent of the Council, shall, except where otherwise provided for in the District Plan;

Use any vehicle for the purpose of living accommodation on any portion of any public place, except where campervans and motor homes are permitted.

Which appears to go against Section 12 of the FCA which states a local authority "may not make bylaws under [the Act] that have the effect of prohibiting freedom camping in all the local authority areas in the district."

It also means the hundreds of visitors who sleep in vehicles during the summer holiday period can only be ticketed for parking. A prosecution will have to be tested in court at ratepayers' expense - and the council is not sharing its legal advice about whether it would win or lose.