30km/h school proposal strongly backed | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Drivers will have to slow down to 30km/h outside schools, under a plan being considered by Hastings District Council.

Councillors last week backed the speed limit proposal in principal and asked officers to look into costs and other implications.

Works committee chairwoman Margaret Twigg said the move was sparked by ongoing road safety concerns at Clive School, and others across the district.

"There's schools all over the place that people are going past too fast, and this will let us find out what we can do and what the costs involved are."

Councillors wanted the limit to apply to schools in all speed zones, including rural schools in 100km/h areas.

Deputy mayor Cynthia Bowers said the plan aimed to help change driver behaviour.

"It's trying to signal that we're really serious about it, and trying to put a stake in the ground and start to change attitudes," she said.

Mrs Bowers said the behaviour of some drivers outside schools was "pretty appalling", particularly when many speeding drivers were dropping off or picking up their own children.

Clive School principal Brian Eales said he backed the plan "100 per cent".

"I would say it would have the resounding support and gratitude of every principal in Hawke's Bay," he said.

"It cuts speed, and it gives children, who are not as focused as drivers, that little bit of extra chance."

Earlier this year, children from Clive School wrote to Hawke's Bay Today and the council asking for more action to slow traffic outside their school.

Mr Eales said a temporary 30km/h limit applied because of roadworks outside the school had slowed traffic markedly.

Heather Titchener, principal at Poukawa School, south of Hastings, said she would welcome any reduction in the 100km/h speed limit outside her school.

"We have a lot of agricultural trucks that go thundering through here," she said.

Hastings area commander inspector Dean Clifford said he wasn't aware of the new proposal, and would need to look at the detail.

"If the option is lowering speed then we'll be looking to enforcement but there may be other options that crop up as well."

He said police were already mindful of the issue and had a lower tolerance for speeding outside schools, and used mobile speed cameras for enforcement.

The council has authority for setting speeds on local roads, while the New Zealand Transport Agency sets limits on state highways.

Councils must follow set criteria for calculating speed limits, but can differ from the rules if the limit is demonstrated to be a safe and appropriate for the road.