Slower speed zones set to be ditched

The start of an 80km/h Safer Speed Aone on Brookfields Rd, Pakowhai. Photo / Duncan Brown

Hastings District Council looks set to ditch some of the 80km/h restricted speed zones created in a controversial by-law change earlier this year.

A two-day council hearing, which finished yesterday afternoon, considered hundreds of submissions opposing the lowering of the limits. The council hearings committee will recommend to a formal council meeting on December 18 that 100km/h zones on Napier Rd and east, including Te Mata Mangateretere and Lawn roads, be reinstated.

But it effectively installs an 80km/h safer speed zone to the west, as far as but not including the Hawke's Bay Expressway. If affirmed, the 80km/h limit will remain in Pakowhai Rd, and in Brookfields Rd, as far the council's boundary with Napier City at the Brookfields Bridge.

The steps were supported 10-4 on a show of hands, only Cr Simon Nixon asking for his opposition to be recorded.

He said later he would have supported the recommendation but for issues he wishes to still debate, including a "consistency" question over the council having an 80km/h limit on Brookfields Rd south of the Tutaekuri River, while it remains 100km/h limit on the Napier side.

The committee considered 1513 responses, including formal submissions and website feedback, of which 67 per cent opposed the reduced limits which were first approved in November last year.

Only 93 submissions had been received in initial consultation through last November to January, when the Planning and Regulatory Committee recommendation was endorsed by the full council meeting, affecting 31 roads and lanes totalling 78km.

The weight of complaints forced a review, and a new round of consultation began, opposition being most pronounced in the 433 emailed submissions and 119 website comments, where more than 80 per cent were against the decisions.

The council took particular notice of those relying on the roads for their income, noting, as did businessman Phil Hocquard, there was an inadequacy of road quality data to support the council proposition that the roads could not support faster speeds, and no evidence to support the installation of a Safer Speed Area.

Clive contractor Earl Steevens, who runs a truck, trailer and bobcat business, submitted in opposition that slower speeds affected performance when "time is money."

"It has had a real effect," he said.

"It is hard on the business. Why fix something that isn't broken."

Like others, he had not been aware of the initial consultation.

"All of a sudden these signs started appearing," he said.

Before the vote, Mayor Lawrence Yule said the council had "listened" because the people weren't happy, and substantial amendments were being made and the council had come up with "reasonable balance".

The meeting recommends a lower limit in the vicinity of the Pakowhai Store.

However, calls for further reductions on State Highway 2 at Waipatu were unable to be met because the highway is not under council jurisdiction.