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Mercury Bay Community Committee member and Thames-Coromandel councillor John Grant said he was aware of the situation and sympathised with the service’s demands.
Mr Grant said funds were limited as councils tried to keep interest rates low in a difficult economic climate.
He said there were other emergency response organisations to consider in terms of funding, including ambulance and air rescue services.
“They really need to go back to their own organizations and ask for funding,” he said.
In a statement, Surf Life Saving New Zealand said it had nothing to add.
Hinds, 56, has been surfing at Hot Water Beach since he was 36, playing in the waves with his children.
A third-generation farmer from the surrounding area, Hinds said he had spoken to a number of council staff over the years but their responses were “very vague”.
“Every few years I’d go back to them and they’d always come up with some excuse.”
He said the service requires a percentage of parking fees to help pay for the equipment.
“The budget was very tight and we replaced things where we could. Hot Water Beach is a dangerous place and we had to work hard to build the club and we had to fight tooth and nail to get it.”
Published data Hauraki Coromandel Post Figures last month showed total revenue from paid parking at the two sites – one on Pye Pl and the other on Hot Water Beach Rd – was $1,479,549 between 2013 and 2024.
A Thames-Coromandel District Council spokesperson confirmed at the time that parking fee revenue would be used to maintain and improve nearby parking facilities and other tourism-related infrastructure, such as toilets, and to repay loans for capital works related to tourism infrastructure in the region.
A report to the Mercury Bay Community Committee in 2013 outlining plans to introduce paid parking at Hot Water Beach said other funding options were impractical or potentially unaffordable, while recent government directions suggest the use of development contributions as a funding source may be restricted in the future.
The goal of the pay-to-display system is to generate alternative revenue for the construction and maintenance of municipal infrastructure impacted by tourism in the Mercury Bay area.
Payment for parking is via an onsite kiosk, which accepts cash or credit cards. Rates are set at $2 per hour or $15 per eight hours, but the fee schedule shows these prices will rise to $4.40 per hour and $28 per eight hours by 2024/25.
The proposal to create paid parking at the beach has received 74 submissions and the council has confirmed the project will start in April 2013.
Petitioners claimed victory in 2021 when the community board blocked a proposal that would not have resulted in free public parking in Hot Water Beach.
Mercury Bay Community Council voted against charging for parking at the Domain Rd carpark, the last free council carpark in Hot Water Beach.
The government’s proposed changes to the international visitor protection and tourism levy were tabled in Parliament in June, calling for a fee of up to $100 to be levied on international visitors.
The group argues the levy should be increased because the Coromandel has a high volume of tourists but a low taxpayer base, and more support is needed to build and maintain tourism infrastructure such as toilets, campervan dump stations and car parks without placing too much of a burden on taxpayers.
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