Speeds on 55 rural roads up for review
The Far North District Council is asking residents to help set traffic speeds on 55 mostly rural roads during a month-long consultation that began on Monday.
The consultation will review traffic speeds on roads in Kaeo, Waipapa, Waimate North and Okaihau to ensure limits are safe and appropriate. It does not include state highways.
The council is also proposing variable school speed zones outside Springbank School, outside Waipapa, and Te Rangi Aniwaniwa, in Quarry Rd, north of Kaitaia, as already apply outside many schools while children are present.
Darrell Sargent, general manager strategic planning and policy, said consultation was the first step in a rolling review of speed limits on district roads across the Far North over the next 12 months as part of the Government’s Safer Journeys Strategy, but also in response to concerns raised by residents about speed limits on a number of roads.
“Speed limits on many of our roads were set when the options were 50km/h in urban areas, 100km/h in most other places, and 70km/h on a few semi-urban roads.
“As a result, we have some places where drivers can travel at 100km/ h on narrow, unsealed roads with one-lane bridges and poor visibility on corners.”
The consultation proposals included the current speed limit for each road under review, and a proposed speed limit that took into account a range of factors including whether the road is sealed, its primary use and traffic volumes.
“We can set speed limits of 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 100km/h so they better match the road environment. Our goal is to create safer, more appropriate and predictable speeds and travel times for all road users,” Sargent added.
Consultation on the first round of speed limit reviews closes on November 22. Submitters who want to speak to their submissions will be heard in December. The council would make any changes to the Speed Limits Bylaw 2019, in February.
For further information, including maps of the roads under review and submission forms, go to fndc.govt.nz/ speedlimitsbylaw.
August Lemon, no stranger to being arrested, punched an unsuspecting policeman in the face, which knocked him to the ground and rendered him unconscious before running off.
Members of the public and shopowners at the Otaika shopping complex rushed to comfort the officer who was unconscious for about a minute as he lay on the footpath on March 19 about 3.55pm.
The officer was seriously injured and was in hospital for eight days, required 10 stitches to a wound on his right cheek and suffered postconcussion syndrome. He has recovered and was back on the beat fulltime.
Appearing before Judge John McDonald in the Whanga¯rei District Court 43-year-old Lemon pleaded guilty to wounding the police officer with intent to injure him and one charge of assault.
He was ordered to pay reparation to the officer of $299 for smashed glasses and $100 for transport costs to a neurologist.
He was also jailed for two years and three months by Judge McDonald, who urged Lemon to take advantage of rehabilitative courses in prison.
“We don’t want to see you back here, it’s a waste of your life. He was out there protecting us all, including you and, as you now accept, you had no right to assault him in the way you did. You yourself had been assaulted earlier and you might have been intoxicated, but that is no excuse for assaulting a police officer,” Judge McDonald said.
“The courts must do what they can to protect the thin blue line of police officers doing their upmost to keep the rest of us safe.”
Two officers were called to the Otaika shops as Lemon was acting in a disorderly manner. As the officers spoke to Lemon he spat at one officer and punched the other in the face and then fled.
The other officer followed Lemon down a driveway and pepper sprayed him when he turned his back on her and then jumped over a fence.
Lemon ran towards NorthTec where he was arrested a short time later, but he declined to make a statement to police.
Before sentencing, Judge McDonald considered a cultural report, which examines an offender’s culture and provides sociological reasons as to why their crime happened and how to prevent it.
We have some places where drivers can travel at 100km/h on narrow, unsealed roads with one-lane bridges and poor visibility on corners. Darrell Sargent
He was out there protecting us all, including you and as you now accept, you had no right to assault him in the way you did. Judge John McDonald
Lawyer Arthur Fairley said it was up to the judge to read the report, consider Lemon’s “horrific background” and see if there was cause for a discount on the jail term.
Crown lawyer Kyle McNeil said