Mayor complains about traffic delays

North Shore City's Mayor, George Wood, is sending a letter of complaint to the Auckland City Police, after a key citybound route was closed for four hours because of Police investigations at a car crash scene this morning.

A serious collision this morning closed the Fanshawe Street off ramp and on ramps and Fanshawe Street itself for four hours between 5.15am and 9.15am, while Police undertook scene examinations. As a result of the incident, North Shore City southbound traffic and other traffic was seriously affected, and at a standstill, with traffic congestion not clearing until midday.

"That is just not acceptable in the country's biggest city. We can't afford to have a key corridor shut down like that for that amount of time - and I don't believe that crash scene examinations need to take that long and cause that much disruption if they are managed properly. We need much better systems in place for minimising delays - the life of our city depends upon it," says Mayor Wood, a former Police chief.

"I understand the investigation was in the hands of the Auckland City Police and I am writing a formal letter of complaint to them and to Transit, as the road controlling authority. They need to work together to get these crash scenes cleared much more quickly than that. I will be following this up with them. I sympathise strongly with drivers caught up in incidents like this. We just can't have our system brought to a standstill for hours at a time like this with no regard for the disruption it causes," says George Wood.

© Scoop Media