A range of speed limit changes for the district will go out for community consultation, but not until they are given a closer look.

Last week Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) shared proposals for a raft of speed limit reductions which would affect many streets in the Wānaka CBD and busy arterial roads.

Councillors were asked to approve the changes for consultation at Thursday’s (August 31) full council meeting, but the discussion quickly turned into criticism of some recommended reductions.

Deputy mayor Quentin Smith said the recommendation to reduce the speed limit at Wānaka’s Golf Course Road (from 70kph to 40kph) and Aubrey Road (from 60kph to 40kph) would be “unnecessarily inflammatory”.

Although the majority of the recommendations made sense, he said, the changes on those roads had potential to “undermine the benefits of the consultation,” he said.

The changes were recommended by council staff as part of the council’s Speed Management Plan (SMP) 2024-2027.

They included various speed limit reductions including more than 20 roads in the Upper Clutha with proposed reductions from 100kph to 40kph or 60kph; another 30-or-so in the Upper Clutha with proposed reductions from 100kph to 80kph; and reductions from 40kph to 30kph on many Wānaka CBD streets.

Councillor Lyal Cocks was also critical of many of the recommended changes.

“I could go down that list and come up with a whole lot of changes,” he said. 

Council staff were unable to answer a number of questions on why specific speed limits were being recommended.

Lyal noted that speed limit changes attract a lot of attention and the recommendations before councillors would get “a heck of a lot” of community feedback. 

After lengthy discussion among councillors and staff, and more recommendations of changes from councillors, they decided to approve consultation, but not immediately.

Staff will review the changes recommended during the meeting and final recommended speeds will be considered and agreed by the mayor, deputy mayor and the chair of the infrastructure committee before public consultation begins.

PHOTO: Wānaka App