‘Such a load of s***’ – speed limits test mayor’s patience

Additional hurdles have appeared for Tasman District Council as it continues to try and lower speed limits after being forced to restart the process by the Government.

The unforeseen challenges have raised frustration among councillors, even leading the mayor to a swearing outburst during a meeting last Wednesday.

The council is preparing to re-consult residents on lowering several speed limits across Tasman.

A suite of new speed limits for the district – which were widely supported by residents, approved by the council, and adopted by the New Zealand Transport Agency – were invalidated by the Government’s new rule for setting speed limits.

As part of the new consultation, the council must include a cost benefit disclosure statement on what the changes are expected to cost. These statements are estimated using a tool developed by the NZTA, however “glitches” have been discovered in the tool.

The council’s senior transportation planning advisor, Bill Rice, told elected members that the glitches have added at least a couple days’ work to finalising the consultation document for the public, but warned that it may take longer to fix.
“That may also delay the consultation timing as well, depending on how long it takes us to go through that process,” he said.

Additionally, to allow time for re-consultation to take place and to avoid having 30kmh variable speed limits outside schools in high-speed zones, speed limit reductions outside of rural schools and on high-risk roads have been pushed back from January 2025 until the third quarter of that year.

Elected members’ patience was wearing thin with the uncontrollable and continued delays to the speed limit reductions that have been long-awaited by many communities around Tasman.

Mayor Tim King said the entire process seemed “entirely stupid” and was “such a load of s***”.

Councillor Jo Ellis said it was embarrassing to have to delay implementing lower speeds around schools and suggested the situation wouldn’t help get young people engaged in council activities.

“We talk about wanting to have young people engaged in government and local issues, and here is a whole group of children who will be throwing their hands in the air.”

Deputy mayor Stuart Bryant said the “extremely frustrating” process had turned into a “right mare”, while councillor Christeen Mackenzie said the additional delays and costs were “appalling”.

Last week, the region’s transport committee agreed to write to Simeon Brown, the Minister of both Transport and Local Government, requesting he grant the council a waiver so Tasman can implement its already-agreed-to speed limits.

However, staff and elected members “don’t hold a great deal of hope that he will”.
Mayor Tim King facetiously suggested changing the speed signs before the formal process was complete as a “pragmatic way forward”.

He acknowledged that the speed limits wouldn’t be legally enforceable by police but would instead be “informational” and send a signal to motorists.

“It’s not illegal to put up a sign, is it? We’re not breaking any law by having a sign that’s effectively just information-only and it just coincidentally happens to be in a similar place to the one we’re consulting on?”

Council staff advised against the suggestion, with strategic policy manager Dwayne Fletcher saying that road signs were governed by “a whole bunch of amazing regulations”.

“Without doing a bit of further digging, we couldn’t give you the specific thing that we’d be contravening, but I’m pretty confident that we would be breaking some rule somewhere.”

“Worth a shot,” King replied.

Consultation on high-risk rural roads and base speed limits outside rural schools is due to begin in mid-January 2025 and will run through until the end of February.