Clarification of the Authority for setting Speed Limit Bylaws

Created: Tuesday, 28 July 2015 03:01

Government recently passed emergency legislation to rectify a technical legal issue relating to speed limit bylaws. The Land Transport (Speed Limits Validation and Other Matters) Act 2015 (“The Act”) clarifies the power of local authorities and other road controlling authorities (such as the NZ Transport Agency) to set speed limits, and retrospectively ensures speed tickets issued since 2004 are enforceable.

The issue

Validity of speed limits set by around 25 local authorities since 2004 had been put in doubt. The issues were a result of increasing complexity in local government legislation and the Land Transport Act:

• Any speed limit bylaw created under section 145 of the Local Government Act 2002 was required to be reviewed within five years. If no review took place the bylaw was deemed revoked after seven years;
• Speed limit bylaws claiming to have been made under section 684 of the Local Government Act 1974 or section 22AB of the Land Transport Act 1998 may not have had the appropriate authority; and
• Speed limits that were not validated according to section 10.1(7) of the Speed Limit Rule 2003 were deemed invalid.

If left uncorrected, speed limits in the districts and cities of local authorities affected may have been found to be unenforceable, if tested before a court.

The Act

• Validates speed limits created since 2004, regardless of whether they may have been set under potentially invalid bylaws;
• Ensures there is a clear power in the Land Transport Act 1998 for territorial authorities to make a speed limit bylaw; and
• Clarifies the procedural requirements for territorial authorities to make a speed limit bylaw.

The effect of the Act

For the time being, territorial authorities maintain the power to set speed limits. The Act declares every bylaw relating to speed limits made under an invalid authority, or that was revoked, to have been lawfully made and to always have been valid. All speed tickets issued since 2004 under such bylaws are therefore enforceable. Those bylaws made between 2004 and the enactment of the Act are enforceable as if they had been made under section 22AB of the Land Transport Act 1998.