AUCKLAND - The North Shore District Court will move 10km north to Albany despite concerns that the shift from Takapuna will inconvenience users.
The Minister for Courts, Georgina te Heuheu, said yesterday that an $18 million court complex would be built on Don McKinnon Drive.
It would open in mid-2001and replace the North Shore's present district court building in Huron St, which had long been considered inadequate.
Police said last year that overcrowding of court cells posed a danger. On one occasion they feared they could face a riot when 24 prisoners were packed into two small cells designed for four people.
Mrs te Heuheu said the Albany site was chosen over two possibilities in Takapuna because it was closer to the centre of the area it would serve, it was larger and cheaper and it allowed for expansion and more parking.
The Albany site also had better road access, and improved public transport had been promised.
But Act's justice spokeswoman, Patricia Schnauer, said lawyers and Takapuna-based Government agencies involved in court work would waste time and money travelling to Albany. The president of Takapuna's business association, Michael Sheehy, said losing the court was a disappointment, but other businesses were moving into the area.
The North Shore-Waitakere police district manager, Superintendent Alistair Beckett, said police had an option to buy a section next to the Albany site and would seek funding for a new station there.
