Roddy Hapati Pihema says his small Far North community is frustrated about having to prove, yet again, their support for a lower speed limit. Photo / RNZ
Roddy Hapati Pihema says his small Far North community is frustrated about having to prove, yet again, their support for a lower speed limit. Photo / RNZ
A small Far North community is “angry and frustrated” it’s been forced to once again fight a battle over speed limits it thought it had already won.
A decades-long campaign by residents of Taumatamākuku, a settlement on State Highway 1between Kawakawa and Moerewa, paid off in August 2020 when NZTA dropped the speed limit past their homes from 100km/h to 80km/h.
Residents said they wanted lower speeds because they were tired of “running the gauntlet” every time they drove to the shops, and of tending to the injured every time there was a serious crash outside their homes.
However, the highway through Taumatamākuku is one of 10 around Northland where recent speed limit reductions could be reversed by July 1, under new, retrospective rules for setting speed limits.
Roddy Hapati Pihema, who heads the Taumatamākuku Community Residents Representative Committee, said having to fight for a reduced speed limit all over again was “absolutely frustrating”.
“We’re angry because we’ve had to go through speed reviews, we’ve had to go through consultations, time and time again,” he said.
“We managed to get the speed limit reduced to 80km/h because we have no safety margins and no street lighting.
“So to have central government come in and stipulate that they want to do a reversal, it doesn’t just affect our community, it affects so many people on the roads.
“Our community is definitely angry and frustrated about this situation.”
Hapati Pihema believed the views of people who did not live in the area had been given precedence over local needs.
He had been encouraging locals to make their voices heard, with hundreds already putting their names to submissions calling for the 80km/h limit to be retained.
He said Taumatamākuku’s hopes for a safer highway had “gone down the toilet”.
As well as reducing the speed limit, NZTA installed the Far North's first speed camera between Kawakawa and Moerewa.
“It’s taken three to four decades to get this far, now it could be undone just because people want to speed up and save a few minutes,” he said.
Ten sections of highway around Northland could have their speed limit reductions reversed.
Some of those speed reductions were unpopular or had mixed support, but a few were the result of hard-fought campaigns by local residents.
Six of the reversals will take place “automatically”, meaning no consultation will take place, by July 1.
They include portions of Kamo Bypass in Whangārei; SH1 north of Kaitāia; SH11 at Te Haumi, near Paihia; and a section of SH1 at the eastern entrance to Moerewa.
The other four are currently subject to consultation, which NZTA said was to gauge the level of support for speed limit reductions carried out under the previous government after 1 January 2020.
They are the 2.7km stretch of SH1 between Kawakawa and Moerewa; SH1 at Hukerenui; and two sections of SH10 on either side of Kaingaroa, northeast of Kaitāia.
Submissions close on 13 March.
SH10 near Kaingaroa has also been the subject of a long-running campaign for lower limits, following a number of high-profile accidents involving child pedestrians.
The speed limit on either side of Kaingaroa was reduced to 80km/h in 2021.
That could return to 100km/h, though the 60km/h limit within the settlement itself is not up for review.
Northland MP Grant McCallum said during the election campaign National promised to revisit some of the Labour government’s speed limit changes.
“We are now reviewing a number of speed limits, and putting some of those out for consultation before we come out with a final decision,” he said.
Far North deputy mayor Kelly Stratford said the push for better road safety in Taumatamākuku started at least 30 years ago, but stepped up a gear in 2014 when the Moerewa Safer Roads initiative started.
While that was focussed on Moerewa, Taumatamākuku residents started attending the meetings to stress the problems they were having.
They then took up their concerns directly with NZTA, helped by a law change that gave local communities a say when in setting speed limits in their areas.
In 2024, amid local concerns that the new 80km/h limit was not being observed, NZTA installed the Far North’s first fixed speed camera between Kawakawa and Moerewa.
