Stay away, mall tells shoppers

The owners of the country's newest and biggest mall yesterday told customers - "don't come".

As traffic jams struck again around midday, Transit said it and Sylvia Park wanted people to postpone their shopping.

Thursday's opening day interest, which caused huge traffic queues and closed motorway onramps, did not abate during the weekend.

The mall's 1200 carparks were full for most of the weekend and there were queues of motorists waiting to get in.

Access to the mall was restricted on Saturday and yesterday, but that did little to deter shoppers.

Yesterday people continued to flock to Sylvia Park and by midday a statement was issued asking people to "consider postponing their trip to the shopping centre until later" and to "avoid the area if possible".

When the mall opened last week, traffic backed up along the Southern Motorway for up to 4km.

The first stage of the mall includes The Warehouse, Foodtown and about 50 specialty stores.

Transit acting regional manager Peter Spies said there were provisions in the building consent in case traffic became a problem, and the developers would be expected to rectify it.