Longbeach School principal Neil Simons with pupils (front to back) Harry O'Connell, George Lash, Hunter Illingworth, Principal Neil Simons, Benji Skevington, Henry Pottinger, Grace Harrison-Hastie, and Rose McKay. Photo: Local Democracy Reporting/ Jonathan Leask
"Finally"; it's been 14 years since Longbeach principal Neil Simons first approached the Ashburton District Council seeking a speed reduction outside his rural school.
The council signed off on a 30kph variable speed zone around the school as part of its interim speed management plan, which was introducing 30kph speed limits around all schools in the district.
"The safety of children is paramount," Simons said.
"At peak times it is very busy, with 150 students trying to get out onto buses and into cars."
All rural schools in the area would soon have variable 30kph zones, operating at the start and end of the school day.
At urban schools, roads would become permanent 30kph zones - all day, every day.
Longbeach School sits just off the 100kph Longbeach Road, and Simons said he had witnessed some "appalling behaviour", but generally drivers are aware of the surroundings and situation he said.
"The tanker drivers have probably been the best at slowing down."
There had been some council debate over it being 30kph for urban schools and 60kph for rural - "maybe because they believe rural kids run faster than town kids" Simon said, but the council opted for a blanket 30kph.
Simons' preference was 30kph and was happy to see it being adopted outside all schools to provide consistency.
The variable speeds would operate in a small time window in both the morning and afternoon during the week, at a time when most motorists were already slowing down around rural schools anyway, he said.
"It would be more of an inconvenience hitting a child with a car," Simons said.
With school buses parked on the roadside with hazard lights on, he said technically it "makes the speed limit 20kph" passing them anyway.
Two rural schools, Lauriston and Dorie, would now have permanent 30kph zones because traffic data showed the speeds along the affected roads were close to 30kph anyway, Ashburton District Council roading manager Mark Chamberlain said.
However, one councillor believed a 30kph limit at rural schools was a step too far.
Councillor Lynette Lovett was concerned about impacting "the tanker drivers", and suggested the variable speed outside rural schools should be lowered to 60kph, not 30kph.
"I think we have gone down too far on the country schools, from 100kph or 90kph right down to crawling space for the transport industry," Lovett said.
But Chamberlain said the consistent 30kph limit for all schools was for maximum safety, as whether a student was urban or rural did not matter.
Lovett's concern about disrupting the transport network had her oppose the plan, with all other councillors voting in favour.
Councillor Tony Todd called the extent of the speed zones "absurd" but still voted in favour of the plan.
Chamberlain said it could "all be reviewed at any time".
The council will start setting up the new speed zones in early April, with set-up complete before the end of June.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
