Sleepless night fuels moves to curb speed

Mayhem and another sleepless night along Mt Maunganui's blue chip beachfront and morale has sunk to an all-time low among residents and hotel operators.

"People are at their wits' end," Marine Parade luxury apartment hotel owner Tony Brindle said.

It was "awesome" that Tauranga City Council intended to press ahead with lowering the speed limit to 30km/h along the top end of Marine Parade, but as usual things took forever to happen.

Last Friday night was the worst in the area for a long time.

Mr Brindle said hundreds of young people were yahooing, urinating everywhere, smashing bottles and generally making as much noise as possible.

The evening culminated in a stabbing, after which things quietened down.

The rowdy Friday night set the scene for this week's council meeting, which backed the move to lower the speed limit.

Marine Parade resident and councillor David Stewart successfully argued to extend the proposed 30km/h zone to Banks Ave - the zone was originally intended to finish at Pacific Ave by Mt Drury.

Mr Brindle said the crowds last Friday showed utter disregard for the rights of residents and guests. Accommodation operators had people checking out on Saturday vowing never to return, he said.

"So much for all the money being spent on tourism."

Mr Brindle saw little evidence of police and guessed they were busy at drink-drive check points.

Belle Mer luxury apartments manager Diana Bagley agreed last Friday was particularly bad. Two apartment owners said they had never experienced anything like it before and were kept awake until the early hours.

Typical comments from guests were: "What the hell was that last night? Are we going to get any more of that?"

Mrs Bagley said the noise was "pretty intense, with enormous swearing" from crowds along the Parade's grassed waterfront.

If the council's proposal to reduce speeds to 30km/h passes the hurdle of public submissions next year, then all eight speed humps from the surf club to Banks Ave will be marked as pedestrian crossings.

Mr Stewart, who lives in the block between Mt Drury and Banks Ave, argued that extending the 30km/h zone was logical. Otherwise, it would lead to motorists becoming confused.

He said the three speed humps between Pacific Ave and Banks Ave were widely used as crossing points to the beach by people coming from the shopping centre.

Council traffic engineer Cliff Griffiths said the environment was suitable for a 30km/h limit - summer daytime speeds along this end of the parade already averaged 25km/h. He said it was necessary to drive at an orderly pace to negotiate the humps with comfort.

As boy racers commonly accelerated their cars to 60km/h between speed humps, a 30km/h restriction would give police the powers to instantly seize cars.

It was this issue of enforcing night-time speeds between humps that worried another councillor. Greg Brownless said unless police were given extra officers to enforce the lower speed limit, the measure would not work.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES