Regional Transport Committee chairman Martin Williams, pictured when first elected to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council less than three years ago. Photo / NZME
Regional Transport Committee chairman Martin Williams, pictured when first elected to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council less than three years ago. Photo / NZME
A rare extraordinary meeting of the Hawke's Bay Regional Transport Committee will be held on Thursday amid highways manager Waka Kotahi NZTA's refusal to back down on the decision to lower the speed limit on two-thirds of the Napier-Taupō highway.
Chairman and Hawke's Bay Regional Council Napier constituency member MartinWilliams called the meeting under council standing orders enabling the committee to "adopt a position" amid the outcry over the NZTA's mid-December announcement that the State Highway 5 speed limit over about 90km between Esk Valley and the Rangitaiki Plains will be dropped from 100km/h to 80km/h from February 18.
The committee is a statutory body based with the Regional Council including mayors from Napier, Hastings, Wairoa and Central Hawke's Bay, and iwi and NZTA representation, and hadn't been scheduled to meet again until March 11.
Its purposes include preparing and monitoring the implementation of the Regional Land Transport Plan, and advocating to the government on transport issues of concern to the region.
Amid calls that the highway needs major work and maintenance, the NZTA says the lowering of the limit is "permanent", and the 100km/h limit will not be restored, even if there is upgrading and improved maintenance.
The stance, despite a majority opposed in more than 1700 submitters during public consultation earlier last year, is stated on the Waka Kotahi NZTA its website in response to the question: "Once the road safety improvements are made, will the speed limit go back up to 100km/h?
Amid calls that the Napier-Taupo road needs major work and maintenance, the NZTA says the lowering of the limit is "permanent". Photo NZME
Answer: "No, the safety improvements will bring the road up to standard to meet the safe and appropriate new speed of 80km/h on SH5 from Rangitaiki to Esk Valley."
The position was reiterated by an NZTA representative on Friday at a meeting in Napier with MPs Stuart Nash (Napier), Anna Lorck (Tukituki) and Meka Whaitiri (Ikaroa Rawhiti), and council, iwi and community representatives, among them Te Pohue community group representative Kiri Goodspeed, truck driver and SH5 issues campaign Tony (Axel) Alexander, and Hawke's Bay motor racing legend and safer-driving advocate Greg Murphy.
Goodspeed was disappointed, saying: "I don't think they can make that call."
Now she wants to step up the call for NZTA to review the decision and hopes to be able to speak at the RTC meeting on Thursday, knowing she already has the backing of the Hastings District Council, which supports community opposition to the decision.
Alexander said that while the MPs supported the right to challenge the "drop" – "bearing in mind that they are part of the sitting Government that has given NZTA the mandate to make roads safer") - NZTA were adamant the decision had been made and it wouldn't change.
He said that while he agrees with the NZTA "Vision Zero mantra" of reducing deaths on New Zealand roads, he doesn't believe the policy of dropping speeds is going to save lives on the highway, as people who drive at 120km/h now are going to ignore the limit change anyway.
He said four of the crashes used by NZTA in its analysis, from 2019-2020, did not involve excessive speed, and the last 15 months had been without fatalities because of increased policing.
But he says police will now bear the brunt of people's anger over having to unnecessarily stick to the 80km/h limit through the whole 90km.
Williams is worried about the lack of attention to Hawke's Bay's crucial northern highway link, in which the most recent major work on the 90km section was the $1 million Dillon's Hill realignment, between Eskdale and Te Pohue, in 2008-2009.
"State Highway 5 is our most-vital regional lifeline," he said. "We are utterly reliant, economically and socially. I felt really compelled to call it (the committee meeting)."
He compared the Hawke's Bay situation with other regions by highlighting major projects completed or ongoing throughout New Zealand, some costing hundreds of millions of dollars, and said: "All we're getting is an 80km/h speed limit."
