A reduced vehicle speed limit on Horowhenua beaches has been voted in by Horowhenua District Council.
The change will see a 30km/h limit on all beaches in the district in a move designed to increase safety for beach-goers as well as reduce the impact of vehicles on beach ecosystems.
Beach driving is currently permitted for the whole of the Horowhenua coastline, with a speed limit of 30km/h for a kilometre or so either side of the Foxton and Waitarere surf life-saving clubs. Otherwise the speed has been the open road speed of 100km/h.
Horowhenua District Council worked on a proposal for a new limit as part of the Draft Land Transport Bylaw 2017.
The proposal was presented to the council for adoption at its meeting on Monday, and unanimously voted in.
Originally a proposal for 60km/h had been made, but this had been altered after the Foxton Beach Volunteer Warden Group, headed by councillor Ross Brannigan, made a submission that reducing the limit to 60km/h did not go far enough, and the default speed should be 30km/h.
Mr Brannigan outlined the group's rationale for the suggested change, saying that whenever someone drove on the beach, it became a road, which allowed the Land Transport Act to become enforceable.
In his prior experience as a police officer, he said people tended to drive at 10km/h above the speed limit anyway, so 30km/h provided a "buffer".
Hearings committee member and HDC councillor Bernie Wanden said the bylaw had come into effect from Monday, when the council voted it in.
He said police would be responsible for infringements, and monitoring would also be carried out by groups such as beach wardens.
Council was planning to raise public awareness of the change.
"It will reduce irresponsible behaviour on the beach," he said.
Foxton police officer Dave Fraser said it was undesirable for people to drive fast on beaches.
"You don't want people going 100kmh on the beach, there's soft spots and people are always rolling things and crashing. You'd be bloody daft if you were going 100km/h on the beach, whether there's people around or not," he said.
"We're all beach users - pedestrians and drivers - and if we could all get along it'd be happy days."