The Road Transport Forum (RTF) is asking why Police and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency haven’t learned from previous lockdowns following the significant level 3 traffic delays at Auckland’s borders on Sunday.
Commuters were waiting for several hours to get through Police checkpoints and enter Auckland yesterday, with delays particularity bad at the southern border.
“We are concerned about driver welfare as well as animal welfare where animals are being transported on trucks, and the condition of perishable goods, including the cost of spoils,” RTF chief executive Nick Leggett says.
“We are unsure why Police and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency haven’t learned from previous lockdowns, and we continue to raise issues with them,” he says.
The RTF is calling on transport operators to get in touch if they have any ongoing or serious issues.
Meanwhile, ACT leader David Seymour says the Government needs to explain why people are being blocked from going into Auckland.
He says several people approached him about the delays with reports of distress and a six hour wait.
“For anyone, but especially the elderly or those with children or animals in the car, the experience has been hellish, not helped by the late summer sun beating down on Auckland.
“The whole premise of Auckland being at Alert Level 3 and the rest of the country at Alert Level 2 is to contain the virus in Auckland.
“If the danger is in Auckland, how does it help to stop people entering? If the danger was outside Auckland, the rest of the country would be at Alert Level 3, too.
“The total lack of logic and proportion to risk in this move will erode public confidence in the Government, and that is dangerous in an epidemic. It wreaks of a government that is not thinking straight.
“The Government should explain the need for roadblocks entering Auckland, or let people through. Otherwise it appears to be another example of the Government failing to think straight, or balance concern about COVID with other health and safety concerns,” Seymour says.
Extra staff from the NZ Defence Force were called in to help Police ease queues. Senior Sergeant Jonathon Chappell told Newstalk ZB that 23,000 vehicles had been through the five checkpoints on Auckland’s southern border since the start of the lockdown.
In 22 hours, just 320 vehicles had been turned back for either not having a legitimate reason for travelling or not having the required paperwork.
*More information on travelling between different regions is available on the Government’s official COVID-19 page here. You can also read the RTF’s latest advisory here.
