More slower speed roads for controversial Whangārei Heads review area

Pātaua Residents and Ratepayers chair John Emett says the council must keep moving on slower speeds for the settlement Photo / Susan Botting

More Whangārei communities are to get controversial slower speeds before winter.

Pātaua North and South, Taiharuru, Mount Tiger, Abbey Caves and Whareora are among new slower road speed areas being brought in by Whangārei District Council (WDC).

Work on these additional new areas will start in April and be completed before the end of May.

A WDC spokesperson said the last section of the catchment’s new slower speeds would include roads at Pātaua North and South, Whareora Rd, Abbey Caves Rd, Mount Tiger Rd and Taiharuru Rd.

The further slow roads will come despite the new Government announcing on December 15 it was wiping the requirement for councils to introduce mandatory blanket speed reviews on council roads.

Pātaua residents want the speed limit on this sign at the hamlet's entrance to be changed to 30, after a now four-year campaign for slower speeds Photo / Susan Botting

There will eventually be 110 roads across 200km of roading in the Whangārei Heads catchment that with speeds as low as 30km/h.

The new roads will be added to those already brought in for WDC’s Whangārei Heads speed catchment.

Those initial slower speed zones along Whangārei Heads Road and surrounds brought in from December 15 have brought loud community backlash.

Pātaua residents and ratepayers association chair John Emett said his community hoped the council would stick to its plan to have the further slower speeds implementation in place before the end of May.

Emett said the community had been told at an October 2022 meeting at Pātaua that these would be in place within 18 months.

The community has been lobbying the council since 2020 for slower speeds on its north and south sides.

The Pātaua community wants 30km/h through its central main roads on the north and the south.

“We have footpaths on only one side of the road,” Emett said of Pātaua South.

“People do speed through here.”

Complaints from communities and commuters affected by the initial changes include concerns about areas with a number of differentlower-speed zones within a short distance, some of the reassigned lower-speed limits and in particular challenges through Pārua Bay village.

These new speeds were brought in after public consultation.

“The goal of setting new speed limits is to have the posted speed reflect the safe and appropriate speed for the road environment, and ultimately reduce the number of fatal and injury crashes on the roadway,” the council said.

The council is soon to review these first sections where speed has been cut to as low as 30km/h.

Complaints from communities and commuters affected by the initial speed changes include the dropping to some areas to 30 km/h. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The council spokesperson said this review was not happening because of the community backlash.

It was part of the normal approach to monitoring new projects’ implementation.

“Over the next two-year period we will continue to monitor the new speed limits and gauge their effectiveness at crash reductions,” he said.

The reviews were first done at three and 12 months after implementation, he said.

The spokesperson said staff would potentially provide recommended changes or tweaks to ensure the new speed limits were safe and appropriate.

However, any changes to the current (new) limits would require a staff recommendation, limited consultation and approval by council, the spokesperson said.

■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.