Rushed law validates tickets

The Government rushed through a law change to validate any tickets issued on council roads nationwide over the past 10 years. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Northlanders hoping to wriggle out of $3 million worth of wrongly issued speeding fines are out of luck, after the Government rushed to fix a bureaucratic bungle that would have seen thousands of tickets invalidated.

Whangarei District Council is among 25 councils nationwide that had not reviewed their speed limits in the past five years, meaning thousands of roads had no legally enforceable speed limit.

Kapiti District Council officials approached the Government about a month ago, saying they were concerned their speed limits had expired and other councils might be in the same position.

Whangarei District Council chief executive Rob Forlong said through an urgent Department of Internal Affairs Review, WDC had been identified as one of the councils in question.

"It's a grey area," he said. "In short, we have two pieces of law that councils can use to create speed limits. One of those had been amended and it is not clear whether we were fully compliant."

WDC's Speed Limits Bylaw was created in 2005 and last reviewed in 2008, so technically limits set at that time expired in 2013. Councils have been responsible for setting limits on all roads since 2004, except state highways with a 100 kilometre per hour limit. More than $3 million in speeding fines had been issued in the Whangarei District since the start of 2013, though this did include those given on state highways.

From 2009 to 2014, 71,943 fines had been given out in Whangarei as a result of speed camera enforcement, with police officers issuing a further 40,510 across the five-year period.

The Government moved urgently on Tuesday to fix the legislative blunder, rushing through a law change to validate any tickets issued on council roads nationwide over the past 10 years. Mr Forlong said WDC was grateful for the change.

"This is a complex area of law and if the matter had not been corrected last night the speed limits set under our bylaws may have been unenforceable," he said. "Lots of other councils were in the same situation."

Mr Forlong said WDC was determined to learn from the situation.

"It is a unique situation, but if it can happen once there is the possibility of it happening again, so we will be on the lookout in future."

Whangarei District Council was confident that other bylaws were current and enforceable. Both Far North and Kaipara district councils said their speed limits had been continually reviewed and up-to-date since 2004.