Agreement by council, NZTA on speed limit

The sign says you’re in a 70kmh zone, but the local council said it was wrong and had been for five years.

Turns out it was the council that was wrong, and yesterday it withdrew its contention that the road was actually a 100kmh zone despite the sign.

As Maraekakaho Rd leaves Hastings heading west, it goes from being a 50kmh zone to a 70kmh zone, which runs for about 310 metres before becoming 100kmh.

This bit of road used to be part of SH50A before the highway designation was transferred to the Napier-Hastings expressway in August 2013, at which time the road was transferred to Hastings District Council.

But the council has never included the 70kmh limit in a bylaw.

On Tuesday a council spokeswoman told that it was council’s view that because there had never been a bylaw, the 70kmh speed limit had actually been unenforceable and that motorists were entitled to drive at 100kmh.

The spokeswoman said it was unclear how this anomaly came about and it had only come to light in a recent internal audit.

This situation differs from the issue addressed by the Land Transport (Speed Limits Validation and Other Matters) Act in 2015.

The Act related to instances where existing bylaws had not been technically valid.

The Maraekakaho Road case involves a situation where a bylaw had never been put in place.

But on Thursday a New Zealand Transport Agency spokesman said its legal opinion was that the 70kmh limit had been set by an NZTA bylaw in 2010 when the road was still part of a State Highway, and this bylaw would only cease to exist if it was revoked by NZTA or quashed as a result of an application to the High Court.

‘‘The bylaw has not been quashed or revoked and replaced by a [Hastings District Council] bylaw and therefore continues in force,’’ the spokesman said.