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I have recieved a speed ticket by mail stating that I was doing 55 in a 50 limit zone
I always thought that there is a speed tolerance of 10 over the legal limit, apart from public holidays
can you please clarify this for me

While the police have said they will enforce a 4km/h speed tolerance across the road network on all public holidays, since 2006 they have been enforcing a 4km/h tolerance within 250 metres of all schools, generally between 7.30am and 6pm weekdays. For more information, see https://www.police.govt.nz/speed-kills-kids/

It is likely you were issued a ticket for travelling at 55kmh in a school zone.

Unfortunately, it's the drivers responsibilty to know they are travelling in a school zone, even though these are often not signposted (and not legally required to be except on 100km/h roads). The AA thinks they should be, and we are campaigning for flashing school signs in all school zones - funded from the fines revenue.

In the meantime, the AA's advice is to travel at the designated speed limit and not the limit + tolerance. Car speedometers are deliberately calibrated to slightly overstate the true speed so travelling at the indicated speed will ensure you are always under the designated limit and the tolerance exists so that if you accidentally speed up (say whilst travelling downhill), you are still likely to be under the enforcement tolerance whether it is 4km/h or 10km/h.

thank you very much for this reply, this was news to me, I have seen the flashing school zone signs near other schools but there was not one where I was ticketed also the day in question was during the school holidays so do I assume that the school zone tolerance applys even during holidays ?

The police mainly enforce during school days, but they can enforce the 4km/h tolerance at other times if children are present, for example weekend sports events or maybe school holiday programmes. But even if you believe this was not the case (or the school zone wasn't signposted), its probably not grounds to challenge the ticket if you admit to travelling above the posted speed limit.

The police 'Speed Kills Kids' campaign has been well publicised since its introduction in 2006, including prime time TV coverage and print media, and it usually gets more profile at the start of each school year. The police expect that motorists will be familiar with the 4km/h tolerance policy by now, but it doesn't help if you don't know you are in a school zone, let alone no kids being present because of the holidays, and that undermines public support for enforcement.

Thank you for your reply, I was not considering challenging the ticket, even tho I would not admit to going over the speed limit, I only have the police s word for that since I was travelling in the morning rush hour and all the other cars would be going at simular speeds I can only assume that they, the police were having a field day
Still at the end of the day it is my responsibility to check my speed at all times
now that I know of this lower tolerance in school zones I will be more carefull
thank you once again