Environment Southland chair Nicol Horrell has defended speeding in his work car, saying it was mostly for overtaking.
Horrell is the only elected member with a company car and exceeded the limit a total of 107 times during a one-year period.
The information was released under LGOIMA, with the council saying it was prepared to name Horrell for transparency and accountability.
But Horrell has backed his driving because of both the distance he covers and nature of the roads.
“I would do well over 30,000km a year, probably more than 500 trips. There’s no passing lanes most of the places I travel, so most of them are very short duration passing manoeuvres,” he said.
Horrell admitted council staff had told him his name was coming up “more often than others”, but said the chief executive wasn’t concerned because it was for short durations.
With the number of windy roads in Southland, he said he didn’t want to stay on the wrong side longer than necessary.
“Common sense dictates that you try and get back on your side as efficiently as possible.”
The long-serving councillor also maintained he had not received a speeding infringement while on council, and believed he likely had the lowest fuel consumption in the fleet.
Environment Southland keeps a close eye on speeding work cars and issues quarterly reports for committee meetings based on eRoads data.
The most recent set of numbers showed a total of 477 speeding exceedances recorded for the January to March quarter, which was an increase on the previous three months.
A councillor’s comment at an April 2 meeting implied chair Horrell may be behind some speeding events.
On that day, councillor Jeremy McPhail suggested that council health, safety and risk manager Paul le Roux wait for the chair to re-enter the room before proceeding with the topic, which was received with laughter.
The council recorded a speeding exceedance when the limit was breached by 10km/h.
Horrell’s 107 incidents relate to the period July 2024 to June 2025, during which time he did not breach the limit by 20km/h or more.
He was not seeking re-election this year after completing six terms at the council.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
