It is important to develop regional consistency in speed management plans.
Early in the regional planning process, regional councils should engage with road controlling authorities to ensure that regional consistency is considered as a road controlling authority develops their speed management plan. This is most important in relation to establishing the 10-year vision and the approach each road controlling authority will follow in developing its plan.
The intention of early engagement is for regional councils to support alignment between road controlling authority plans so that the regional plan can sensibly provide a regional theme that incorporates the various road controlling authorities’ policies. This early engagement should take place regardless of whether a road controlling authority initially joins the regional process or develops a territorial authority speed management plan independently for later inclusion. The early engagement will inform the regional transport committee’s decision about whether to require road controlling authorities to follow the regional process.
A regional transport committee may notify a road controlling authority that it requires the road controlling authority to follow the regional process, which prevents the road controlling authority from consulting on its local (territorial authority) plan independently. The regional transport committee’s notification must inform the road controlling authority of its intention to publish a regional plan within the next 28 calendar days. This is subject to the road controlling authority not having already published its consultation draft.
The regional transport committee also plays an important role in addressing any identified issues with speed limits at adjoining roads in the region’s network, with boundary roads at neighbouring regional networks, or with the state highway network.
The regional council also has a role to play in supporting the regional speed management planning process. Once the road controlling authorities develop their territorial authority speed management plans and provide them to the relevant regional transport committee, the regional transport committee compiles the road controlling authorities’ plans to create a regional speed management plan. The regional transport committee, road controlling authorities and regional council then coordinate to publish and consult with the public on the regional speed management plan.
Regional councils facilitate consultation by publishing the draft plan and then providing the administrative support to help collate submissions and then pass them back to the road controlling authorities to take the next steps. Road controlling authorities should then consider submissions, amend their plans as appropriate, and advise the regional transport committee of any changes it is proposing.
The regional transport committee then collates changes from all its road controlling authorities into the Regional Speed Management Plan. The regional transport committee may need to facilitate discussion and consideration of any remaining regional inconsistencies between the road controlling authorities during this part of the process. Once the regional transport committee is satisfied and there are no regional inconsistencies then it submits the plan to the Director of Land Transport for certification.
