Draft Whakatāne District Speed Management Plan

Contributions to the draft District Speed Management Plan consultation are now closed for evaluation and review.

The project team will now collate all responses and key findings and once finalised, communicate these to elected members and the wider public.

We want everyone who calls the Whakatāne District home, or who visits our communities, to be safe when using our streets and roads. To do this, we need the right speeds on our roads for everyone, whether you are walking to the shops, biking to school, driving to work, or making deliveries.

As part of a nationwide programme led by Central Government, all councils across the country are in the process of developing new Speed Management Plans that will guide changes to speed limits across high-risk roads.

This is part of an effort to meet a national target to reduce deaths and severe injuries on our roads by 40 percent over the next 10 years.

Over the next 10 years, we'll be looking at speed changes on high-risk rural roads, places where there is community demand for change and areas where there are high numbers of pedestrians and cyclists.

Read the draft Whakatāne District Speed Management Plan >>

View the map of proposed speed changes >>

Find out more >>

It only takes two minutes. But gives us a world of insight.
Tell us what you think before Sunday 30th July.


As part of this nationwide effort to reduce deaths and injuries on our roads, the Government has introduced a new law called the Land Transport Rule, Setting of Speed Limits 2022.

This law sets out new rules for speed limits around schools that Council must follow.

These new rules include:

  • 40 percent of schools to have speed limit reduced by 30 June 2024 (this is in the process of being implemented).
  • All schools to have speed limit changes by 2027.
  • Local streets should have speed limits of 30 or 40kph.
  • Urban Connectors (typically our urban arterial roads) can be up to 50kph with appropriate safety interventions.
  • All undivided roads in the rural network should have speed limits of no more than 80kph, and should be 60kph where safety is compromised, such as where vehicles are parking or terrain, obstacles etc which make the road hazardous

We know lowering speeds will reduce the risk of injury for those travelling in our community and encourage more active transport like walking, scootering and biking. By lowering speed limits to 30kph in urban areas, these activities become much safer and should encourage more people to be more active and help reduce congestion.

You can find out more about the new rule here.

We want everyone who calls the Whakatāne District home, or who visits our communities, to be safe when using our streets and roads. To do this, we need the right speeds on our roads for everyone, whether you are walking to the shops, biking to school, driving to work, or making deliveries.

As part of a nationwide programme led by Central Government, all councils across the country are in the process of developing new Speed Management Plans that will guide changes to speed limits across high-risk roads.

This is part of an effort to meet a national target to reduce deaths and severe injuries on our roads by 40 percent over the next 10 years.

Over the next 10 years, we'll be looking at speed changes on high-risk rural roads, places where there is community demand for change and areas where there are high numbers of pedestrians and cyclists.

Read the draft Whakatāne District Speed Management Plan >>

View the map of proposed speed changes >>

Find out more >>

It only takes two minutes. But gives us a world of insight.
Tell us what you think before Sunday 30th July.


As part of this nationwide effort to reduce deaths and injuries on our roads, the Government has introduced a new law called the Land Transport Rule, Setting of Speed Limits 2022.

This law sets out new rules for speed limits around schools that Council must follow.

These new rules include:

  • 40 percent of schools to have speed limit reduced by 30 June 2024 (this is in the process of being implemented).
  • All schools to have speed limit changes by 2027.
  • Local streets should have speed limits of 30 or 40kph.
  • Urban Connectors (typically our urban arterial roads) can be up to 50kph with appropriate safety interventions.
  • All undivided roads in the rural network should have speed limits of no more than 80kph, and should be 60kph where safety is compromised, such as where vehicles are parking or terrain, obstacles etc which make the road hazardous

We know lowering speeds will reduce the risk of injury for those travelling in our community and encourage more active transport like walking, scootering and biking. By lowering speed limits to 30kph in urban areas, these activities become much safer and should encourage more people to be more active and help reduce congestion.

You can find out more about the new rule here.