‘My rights have been taken off me’
For seven years, Jeffrey Whittingham has made an old bus at Tahuna Beach Holiday Park his home.
It’s the life he chose. It’s affordable and mostly sustainable. Everything but a television runs on solar power and he has a raised vegetable garden outside.
But on Tuesday, Whittingham has to leave. He has been evicted from the Nelson holiday park and threatened with a trespass notice if he doesn’t comply.
The 51-year-old sickness beneficiary claims he has been unfairly targeted and ‘‘bullied’’ by holiday park management.
Holiday park manager Marcel Fekkes says Whittingham has a ‘‘disregard for safety’’.
The holiday park conducted an electrical audit of long-term residents in February to check they were complying with the latest regulations, after a motorhome caught fire because of an electrical fault.
Whittingham was told his van was non-compliant and, on April 11, his power was pulled.
An electrician told him his current set-up would be fine until it was made compliant, which wouldn’t be for several weeks.
He was given an eviction notice on May 8 and told the reason was because he plugged his power back in before becoming compliant.
‘‘I didn’t have a leg to stand on. My rights have just been taken off me,’’ Whittingham said.
Fekkes said the eviction was ‘‘solely’’ because Whittingham plugged his power back in after being told not to.
‘‘We take safety into high regard here, as we must, because we’re liable.’’
Voice Nelson housing spokeswoman Mary Ellen O’Connor said the eviction highlighted the lack of affordable accommodation options for vulnerable people in Nelson, particularly after the holiday park closed its emergency housing last year.
‘‘They need to actually connect with Nelson and what an unaffordable place it is becoming and how few options there are.’’