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Opponents to a blanket 30km/h speed limit in Leigh have won a partial victory, with Auckland Transport (AT) revising its plans after their campaign.
The Safe Speeds team revealed that it was now recommending 40km/h throughout the township, with a variable 30km/h limit on streets around the school and preschool – Seatoun Avenue, Albert Street, Sea View Road, the northern end of Hauraki Road, Totara Road, and Cumberland Street from Hill Street to Pakiri Road.
The 30km/h limit will only be in force around school drop-off and pick-up times. However, attendees at an AT drop-in session to announce the changes last month were still unhappy.
Leigh Central owner Alan McDonald wanted to know why Albert Street, Sea View Road and the eastern end of Cumberland Street were being included.
“No kids are getting dropped off there. We just need the three streets that surround the school,” he said.
Others were unhappy that Leigh appeared to be singled out for such changes, especially when schools such as Matakana had far heavier traffic volumes to cope with.
After stressing that similar restrictions would be rolled out across all schools in time, senior transportation engineer Chatura Siriwardane admitted that AT was trying to prioritise schools based on how much engineering was required.
“There are some schools that have very high speeds and would need speed humps and so on, they can take years,” he said. “Roads around this school have relatively low operating speeds where we can just start with signs and markings and monitor effects and changes.”
Attendees voted to ask AT to restrict the 30km/h zone to the three streets around the school grounds, though staff said they couldn’t guarantee it would happen. The revised Leigh speed proposals will go before the AT board for approval in September.
