KEY POINTS:
Efforts to control driver behaviour on beaches will get nowhere until the Government moves to resolve confusing roles played by a multitude of agencies with beach jurisdiction, Far North Mayor Wayne Brown believes.
Mr Brown has written to Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta urging a national approach to the issue of idiot driving behaviour on beaches throughout the country.
He sees this as preferable to a piecemeal approach being taken by local bodies, government departments, police and agencies in different parts of NZ, including Northland, where speed-restricting bylaws are proposed for at least four high-profile, "high-conflict" beaches.
These include Ahipara and Tokerau beaches in the Far North, Bream Bay southeast of Whangarei and Baylys Beach/Glinks Gully on the west coast, south of Dargaville.
This action follows the death of 13-year-old Daisy Fernandez, who was run down and killed by a 15-year-old boy on a motorbike on the beach at Glinks Gully on New Year's Eve. Daisy's friend Claudia Billinge was seriously injured. Mr Brown has also asked the minister who sets the rules for travel along a stretch of 90 Mile Beach which, he says, is not a legal road.
Regional councils, district councils, the Department of Conservation, police, Ministry of Transport and Land Transport NZ all have some jurisdiction on beaches, Mr Brown said, but each has different legislative roles and administrative boundaries.
"Headway needs to be made before next summer's mayhem [on beaches] begins and the government needs to take the lead role in progressing this issue," he wrote.
He did not want Far North ratepayers to have to bear the cost of jurisdictional changes to allow the introduction of speed-restricting bylaws.
As proposed, the changes require Northland's three district councils to extend their boundaries from high water to low water marks and formally transfer the power of making bylaws to the Northland Regional Council.
Mr Brown said a legal interpretation sought by his council indicated the regional council could impose speed restrictions on beaches under the Land Transport Act without the need for boundary changes or an exchange of bylaw powers.
The regional council was already a road-controlling authority under the Transport Act and had the power to impose beach speed limits.
He's also not convinced that imposing speed limits on beaches will bring the result communities want.
"The behaviour of those causing problems on beaches is all about stupidity rather than a lack of enforcement rules.
"I don't want to see a whole lot of new rules and regulations imposed on sensible people just to deal with a few stupid New Zealanders."
But Northland Regional Council manager of planning and policy, Glen Mortimer, said survey responses showed speed on Northland beaches was the major concern of beach users.
Legal advice to the regional council was that control of beaches rested with the Crown, under the Foreshore and Seabed Act, and speed limits could be introduced by the Crown, Mr Mortimer said.
"We hope to have a clear direction on this from the Crown by next month," he said.
