Parua Bay village speed limit to be reversed

Published on 04 June 2025

On 30 October 2024, the Ministry of Transport introduced the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024, which includes provisions for the reversal of certain speed limit changes that were implemented after 1 January 2020.

Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024 (nzta.govt.nz)

As part of this rule, any recent speed limit changes must be assessed and, where necessary, reverted to the previous enforced speed limits.

The implementation of the new road classification system (Schedule 3) under the rule plays a crucial role in determining which roads are subject to these reversals.

Results of the assessment

Through this assessment, it was determined that only two Whangārei District roads were subject to speed limit reversals under the new rule: Whangarei Heads Road and Lamb Road, both located in the Parua Bay village area. These were the only two roads where speed limit changes since 1 January 2020 needed to be reversed.

• Whangarei Heads Road: Speed limits on this road, were found to be inconsistent with the new road requiring a reversal to the previous limit. The current speed limit of 30km/h will be reversed to the previous speed limit of 50km/h, with a variable 30km/h operational during school start and finish times within the school zone.
• Lamb Road: Similarly, the speed limit change on Lamb Road was assessed and determined to be out of alignment with the new classification, with the first 100m from Whangārei Heads Road requiring it to be returned to the previous enforceable limit of 50km/h from the current speed limit of 30km/h.
• Adjoining roads: Kiteone Road and Ritchie Road will have their signage updated to reflect the approaching speed limit on Whangarei Heads Road.

Implementation to variable speed zone – Week of 9-13 June 2025

• Normal hours: 50km/h
• School activities: 30km/h
  • 8:00am to 9:00am
  • 2:30pm to 3:30pm – Parua Bay School
  • 4:10pm to 4:30pm – High School drop-offs.