Addressing residents concerns about roads and speed limits in our local area.
Hearings for the Draft Speed Limit Bylaw Amendment 2014 will be held today, Friday 17 October from 9.30 am at the Tasman District Council Chambers, 189 Queen Street in Richmond.
The MHRA will be presenting regarding our submissions (see below).
The full agenda can be found at the TDC website at this link. This includes the council reports and some notes on each submission and reasoning behind council proposals.
We are following up on the speed limits changes proposed by TDC as part of the 2014 bylaw review.
Specifically, we are submitting proposed variations to the changes proposed on Old Coach Road and School Road past Mahana school. Read our full submission here.
Since we have received no feedback on our other two submissions regarding the Moutere Highway and lower Neudorf Road in the previous year we are also requesting these be discussed again as part of this year's hearings.
TDC has just published a list of proposed speed limit changes for the ongoing 2014 bylaw review.
Various roads in our area are listed - including Gardner Valley, Harley, Best, Tarrant, Nuttal, and George Harvey Road, and also sections of Old Coach Road and Mahana School Road - with a new maximum speed limit of 80 km/h to be set - 60 km/h in some cases. See the full list on the TDC website for more details.
The proposal also notes that gravel roads were not considered during this review as there is still an ongoing review by NZTA of national speed management guidelines which may include all unsealed roads. Also it is noted that the state highways within Tasman District are subject to NZTA handling as well.
The current TDC review is open for submissions. Submissions close 4.30 pm on Monday 15 September 2014. The link above also leads to the submission form.
The Mahana group is getting council to move after successfully presenting their petition to reduce the speed limit on Old Coach Road and near Mahana School to Mayor Richard Kempthorn. The petition was signed by over 600 people.
The organising group has now met with TDC Chief Executive Lindsay McKenzie and are negotiating measures to improve the situation. Various steps such as a formal consultation will still be required.
Let's hope that this momentum can be maintained and that some actual action will be taken place in the near future.
TDC is starting into a new review of speed limits in the district with the first phase of community feedback open now:
"Tasman communities are invited to send feedback on any of the speed limits covered by the Speed Limit Bylaw. This feedback is the first part of the community engagement process for a full Speed Limit Bylaw review later in the year."
Submissions can be made via this link on the TDC website. Deadline is 30 May 2014.
Since our submissions on Old Coach Road, the Moutere Highway, and lower Neudorf Road made last year had met with the barrier of not having been consulted on in time we are now re-submitting these to the new review.
Mahana residents continue to fight for getting speed limits reduced on Old Coach Road and a school zone established around the entry to Mahana school. Despite formal submissions made by the MHRA and residents last year no action has been taken by council to this date.
A group of Mahana members are preparing a petition to the Tasman District Council with the first aim to gather at least 500 signatures - this is a very achievable goal, and you can easily help.
If you want to support the cause simply print out a copy of the petition form, sign it yourself, and get your friends or neighbours to sign, then return the form to Julian Manning, 244 Apple Valley Road, RD1, Upper Moutere 7173. Every signature helps.
The MHRA committee presented our submissions for reduced speed limits on various roads in the area to council at a hearing on 16 April. The official report from that hearing was presented to full council on 26 June and can be found on the TDC website.
While we found that the roads of concern to us could not be addressed during the current review - they not yet having undergone a consultation process as other locations have - it was noted by council that these "needed to be fully investigated as part of a future speed limit review".
We have since inquired when such a review might next take place and have received word from Cr Brian Ensor that this was being discussed by council staff and could happen "inside the next twelve months".
With the previously mentioned Speed Limits Bylaw Review in process, we have been busy trying to ensure local concerns are heard by council. Based on input from individuals and groups of residents the MHRA has composed and filed three submissions on speed limit restrictions in our area.
These are:
In addition, a number of local residents have created and filed their own submissions on related issues and locations.
The council is currently in the process of reviewing speed limits throughout the district. The currently proposed changes can be viewed on this page on the council website. The two locations of concern to us - Moutere Highway past the Community Centre and Old Coach Road near Mahana school - have unfortunately not found their way into the list. We have received some details about the considerations done by council with regard to these two sites which we can forward to interested members on request. There is a deadline for submissions to this review which is 25 March.
A group of Mahana residents are currently preparing a submission to council requesting the full length of Old Coach Road to be considered for safety issues, similar to the way that a number of local roads in the Ruby Bay and Tasman area are seeing lower speed limits applied.
Road safety concerns aired by local residents at a recent Moutere Hills Residents Association public meeting have resulted in prompt action from the Council.
Councillor Trevor Norris has reported that the TDC is to formally investigate the possibility of introducing speed restrictions on the Moutere Highway leading up to the Community Centre entrance way, and also on Old Coach Road approaching the Mahana School.