Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has personally taken to a road with a roller brush to remove what people had told him was the city's "dumbest car park".
Five days ago, Auckland Council took over as the region's road controlling authority.
Auckland Transport, keeping its branding as AT, remained a council-controlled organisation but as a much smaller entity, tasked only with running public transport.
"Here we are out in New North Rd where we have a totally unnecessary car park," Brown declared in a social media post on Tuesday. "One single car park on a really important road that blocks up traffic and causes a traffic jam."
Brown said one "poor bugger", who lived next to the car park, was in touch with his office about the road markings that permitted one vehicle pull up and block traffic every weekday.
"This single spot on New North Road blocked an entire lane and held up cars and trucks every single day," Brown posted. "It's the sort of thing that's been annoying people for years, but with nothing done about it.
"Instead of building another bloody road, we're going to so something sensible," he said, grabbing a roller with black paint and and painting over the white lines.
"My first move at getting rid of dumb stuff. Goodbye dumb stuff. Hello, smooth traffic."
Auckland Council took charge of all local roads on October 1 under the the Local Government Amendment Act 2026, which passed its third reading in April.
The Government agreed last year to change the law to give elected officials more direct control over transport decisions.
Standing next to his roadside handiwork, Brown added: "We've taken back control of Auckland Transport which means we can actually fix these things. No endless paperwork or bloated budgets. Just simple, common-sense stuff that makes a real difference to people's lives.
"This is just the beginning. We have plenty more of these in the pipeline."
SHARE ME