At least one person lost their licence after a council error that meant 172 drivers were wrongly issued speeding fines in central Wellington, New Zealand.
Last week reported that Wellington City Council admitted a lower speed limit on Aotea Quay could not be enforced because they had changed it incorrectly.
In 2023, the council introduced a temporary 50km/h limit on the busy arterial road between Sky Stadium and State Highway 1 while a roundabout was built. The permanent speed limit was 70kph.
After the roundabout was completed, in April 2024, the council installed 50km/h signs and consulted on lowering the speed limit permanently – a change it said was necessary due to the roundabout.
There was no opportunity for public feedback and the council approved the change in August 2024.
However, the council failed to submit the change to the National Speed Limit Register before the new Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024 was signed by the minister of transport, returning many recently reduced limits to higher levels.
50km/h signs ‘not legal’
Following last week’s story, Stuff obtained emails between the council and police, released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.
The documents showed that in September 2024, the council’s former chief of infrastructure, Siobhan Procter, emailed police to let them know about the speed limit change.
However, a month later, Gordon Keay from the Police Infringement Bureau replied, telling Procter the council had used the incorrect law to change the speed limit.
This meant the police had been enforcing a speed limit that was incorrect.
“The 50[km/h] signposted limit in place on Aotea Quay is not legal and as a result police have had to cancel and refund or withdraw from Ministry of Justice jurisdiction a total of 172 speeding infringements.”
At least one of the infringements had resulted in disqualification over total demerit points, Keay wrote.
“Police have been enforcing that limit in good faith, but have now ceased any speed enforcement on Aotea Quay until the problem has been rectified.
“I recommend that the illegal and non-compliant 50[km/h] signs be removed or covered immediately and replaced with 70[km/h] signs which are compliant with the current legal speed limit for the area until this matter is resolved.”
Inspector Peter McKennie, acting director of road policing, told Stuff that officers rely on the accuracy of speed limits set by local authorities.
If police find an inconsistency, they alert the controlling authority to fix it, as well as reviewing and cancelling any tickets issued in error.
For now, there are no speed limit signs posted along the several hundred metres of arterial route which takes traffic in and out of the city.
Wellington City Council referred Stuff to comments from the previous week’s story, which said the public were getting a chance to comment on the speed change.
However, the consultation was going ahead for legal reasons and appeared unlikely to change the reality: without a lower speed limit, the roundabout would need to be rebuilt.
The consultation is open until early December, and the proposal will be decided by a council committee early next year.
This article was originally published on Stuff.co.nz and has been reproduced here with permission.
