In a jam: locals bear brunt of ban chaos
FRUSTRATED parents face 90-minute school runs while others who have queued that long are sent to the back by police unhappy with passes in nightmare Coolangatta border scenes.
On top of Queensland’s block on anyone coming from Victoria, 77 Sydney suburbs are now “hot spots” due to coronavirus outbreaks. Police aim to stop every car with a NSW number plate at the four entry points.
Traffic slowed to a crawl on roads approaching the border early on Wednesday morning as officers checked people had not visited NSW areas of Liverpool or Campbelltown.
Kilometres of traffic had backed up on the M1, with some local residents saying the tailbacks were the worst yet.
Some took to social media to air frustration at the “insanity”.
“Waited an hour and a half and then got told to get another border pass and (the police) made us start again,” one Facebook user wrote. “It’s insane. Don’t cross the border unless you really have to.”
Others spoke of problems with merging points and long school drop-off delays, with one frustrated motorist posting: “It takes about 1-1.5 hours. I have to do school drop off and pick up over the border.”
Anger at delays spilt over at a police press conference in Coolangatta on Wednesday.
A woman in a passing car heckled Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler, screaming “I have been waiting for an hour” as he gave a media update on border checks.
Other motorists engaged in loud whoops and beeping as they passed the press conference.
Superintendent Wheeler confirmed significant but “unavoidable” delays for those travelling across the border on Wednesday.
“At the airport we are scrutinising every passenger and as of yesterday lunchtime we turned around five people at our airport and five people at our border vehicle checkpoints,” Superintendent Wheeler said. “The delays are very unfortunate, but they are unavoidable at the moment.”
Motorists crossing the border must provide a statutory declaration they have not been in hot spots for 14 days and also can be asked for proof including receipts and photos. Breaches carry penalties of $4000 and potentially imprisonment in severe cases.
Superintendent Wheeler said he had heard about waits of up to two hours for the checks.
A review of staff requirements, operation methods and safety at border checkpoints is being done.
“There will still be a requirement to converge that traffic into one lane so it can be assessed, filtered and inspected if necessary,” he said.
He could not confirm how long traffic delays would continue into the coming days
“The public will catch up with the declaration system provided there haven’t been more hot spots declared.
“Things are happening incredibly quickly and changing by the day, sometimes by the hour.”
Bulletin photographer Scott Powick revealed his own holdup at a border checkpoint late on Tuesday afternoon. He said a usually 20-minute trip turned into an almost fourhour wait in standstill traffic.
“We left (Kingscliff) at about 3.30pm, and got home (in Burleigh) at about 7.20pm,” he said.
“It was so slow, it was backed up through to south Tweed on the M1. We got off at Kennedy Drive to go through Duckett Street, and that was all blocked. Then we tried to go through Coolangatta and it was blocked too.
“By the time we got through it was close to four hours, it was a nightmare.”
He said passengers using their phone for border declarations were part of the holdup.
“I had a paper pass but my son had his pass on his phone,” he said.
“(That stopped us.
“Police apologised for it taking so long. The (police officer) I spoke to said if people would just get paper passes it would make their job a lot easier.”
WAITED AN HOUR AND A HALF AND THEN GOT TOLD TO GET ANOTHER BORDER PASS AND (THE POLICE) MADE US START AGAIN
was why) they