A Misstep by the New Zealand Council: 172 Speeding Fines, a License Lost
In a case that highlights the consequences of administrative errors, a council mistake in New Zealand has resulted in 172 wrongly-issued speeding fines, with at least one person losing their license. The story begins with a well-intentioned decision by the Wellington City Council to lower the speed limit on Aotea Quay, a busy arterial road in central Wellington. However, the council's error in changing the speed limit has led to a series of unfortunate events.
In 2023, the council introduced a temporary 50km/h limit on the road while a roundabout was being built. The permanent speed limit was supposed to be 70km/h. After the roundabout was completed in April 2024, the council installed 50km/h signs and consulted on lowering the speed limit permanently, citing the roundabout as the reason for the change. However, the council failed to submit the change to the National Speed Limit Register before the new Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024 was signed by the minister of transport, which reverted many recently reduced limits to higher levels.
The consequences of this oversight were soon realized. Emails between the council and police, obtained by Stuff under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, revealed that the council's former chief of infrastructure, Siobhan Procter, had notified the police about the speed limit change in September 2024. However, a month later, Gordon Keay from the Police Infringement Bureau replied, informing Procter that the council had used the incorrect law to change the speed limit. This meant that the police had been enforcing an incorrect speed limit, and as a result, 172 speeding infringements had to be canceled and refunded or withdrawn from the Ministry of Justice jurisdiction.
At least one of the infringements had resulted in the disqualification of the driver over total demerit points, Keay wrote. The police had been enforcing the incorrect limit in good faith but had ceased any speed enforcement on Aotea Quay until the problem was rectified. Keay recommended that the illegal and non-compliant 50km/h signs be removed or covered immediately and replaced with 70km/h signs, which are compliant with the current legal speed limit for the area.
Inspector Peter McKennie, acting director of road policing, told Stuff that officers rely on the accuracy of speed limits set by local authorities. If police find an inconsistency, they alert the controlling authority to fix it, as well as reviewing and canceling any tickets issued in error. For now, there are no speed limit signs posted along the several hundred meters of arterial route that takes traffic in and out of the city.
The Wellington City Council referred Stuff to comments from the previous week's story, which said the public were getting a chance to comment on the speed change. However, the consultation was going ahead for legal reasons and appeared unlikely to change the reality: without a lower speed limit, the roundabout would need to be rebuilt. The consultation is open until early December, and the proposal will be decided by a council committee early next year.
This article was originally published on Stuff.co.nz and has been reproduced here with permission.
