Mayor says action needed following another death

Rodney Mayor Penny Webster has reiterated her calls for the immediate upgrade of the Puhoi to Wellsford highway, following yet another death on the road and more heavy congestion during the Easter break.

“Rodney District Council has advocating for some time the four laning of this important part of State Highway One to begin immediately to improve the safety of the road,” Mayor Webster says.

“Unfortunately, another life was lost this Easter holidays on a road which is fast becoming one of the busiest and worst traffic black spots in the country.”

Mrs Webster has also lashed out at criticism of the urgent need for the state highway upgrade as petty politics being played out by self-indulgent, Auckland-based local and national politicians.

“It is just arrant nonsense for these critics to dismiss this vitally important and strategically significant part of New Zealand’s state highway as merely a ‘holiday highway’”, she added

“What these people conveniently forget – while taking cheap shots at the many thousands of New Zealanders who access this part of the country during holidays – is that fact that this road is a key economic link between Auckland and the north.”

Mrs Webster says upgrading State Highway One from Puhoi to Wellsford is vital for the economic future of Rodney, Northland and Auckland as a whole.

She says the highway also has an appalling safety record and urgent action is needed.

"I am sick and tired of hearing claims about this only being 'a holiday road' - surely the amount of traffic movements on this stretch of highway would indicate to anyone with common sense that it is anything but a holiday road," she says.

“The community who live in the region knows this, as do the thousands of people who travel this road everyday.”

ENDS

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