Speed limit reversal celebrated by retirement village residents

Some speed limit rises introduced on highways near Levin last year have been reversed

Horowhenua mayor says common sense has prevailed

The changes were part of a government promise to undo lower limits brought in under previous administration

Residents of a lower North Island retirement village lost their first battle to stop the speed limit on the highway outside their gate returning to 100km/h.

But Speldhurst Country Estate near Levin has now won the war, as transport officials on Monday confirmed a drop back to 80km/h.

It follows another round of consultation, where village residents made sure their voices were heard.

Years of work pays off

Roger Parton jokes that he has now started his second retirement.

His tenure as Speldhurst Residents' Association president has just finished and a good chunk of his four years in the job was spent mobilising the village's growing population of more than 730 to write submissions and sign petitions against the 100km/h limit.

All that effort has paid off, as the NZ Transport Agency has confirmed the limit on the Kimberley Road stretch of State Highway 57 passing Speldhurst is returning to 80km/h.

"When NZTA came to us earlier this year and said they were reviewing those speed limits and invited submissions we rounded up the residents of the village and everybody put submissions in and signed a petition," Parton said.

"We're delighted to see it go back to what it was. The only thing that concerns me is the amount of time and energy that it has taken to get back to where we were when we started."

The speed limit on the highway past the former psychiatric institution, the Kimberley centre, on Levin's outskirts, dropped from 100km/h to 80km/h in 2020.

Last year that was reversed by the present government when it raised the limits on dozens of stretches of highway around the country. A number of these decisions are now under review.

Parton said the higher limit left Speldhurst residents feeling uncomfortable turning in and out of traffic often going pretty fast, on a rat run that avoided the urban centre.

"There has been one fatal crash further down the road by the railway lines, but there's been a number of near misses, particularly people turning right into the village from Levin and then being overtaken by somebody else while they're waiting to turn right.

"Fortunately, nobody has had an accident in that area as yet, and no village resident has been hurt as far as I'm aware."

News of the reversal was filtering through the village.

"Everybody's been delighted. It's taken a lot of time and effort, and they're glad to see it go back to where it was.

"A number of people think it should be lower, but that's the reality of life. And if we've got it back to 80kmh, well, it's better than being 100kmh."

Resident struggles to understand partial reversal

The speed limit reversal does not apply for the entire length the old 80kmh limit ran on SH57, a decision Molly Page doesn't understand.

She lives near where the road heading south sharply turns towards Speldhurst, about where the new lower limit begins.

She would have liked that lower limit to return to a longer section of the highway.

"The whole area has been rural, but it's becoming more and more urbanised. I don't think they've taken any of this into account.

"I think they're just responded to the issue with Speldhurst and the call for the speed limit to drop there."

'Common sense prevails'

Public consultation last year was in favour of the limit rise on SH57 and on a section of SH1 south of Levin, a position that was reversed in this year's round of consultation.

The transport agency said public opinion was marginally in favour of lowing the limit on SH1, but for the section of SH57 near Speldhurst opinion was overwhelming, with about 73 of submissions favouring change.

The agency said it agreed to look again at the speed limits on some sections of highways because of community concerns.

Horowhenua mayor Bernie Wanden has led a campaign to keep the limits at 80kmh, and he said commonsense had prevailed.

"We had always thought that the way they had interpreted the feedback they had received was very much targeted around road users rather than, in fact, the locals."

A new expressway opening in 2029 would remove some cars from the existing highways, but until then traffic volumes would keep rising, so the speed decreases were needed, Wanden said.

"There's time for us to get used to this before the new expressway comes, but we're just satisfied that NZTA have re-looked at those speed limits, not only for Speldhurst, but around Tukorehe Marae [on SH1 south of Levin] and other places like that, which have been pretty dangerous over the last few years."

NZTA said work was under way planning for when the new limits would be introduced.