Anger over Roskill name

Shops near the corner of Dominion Rd and Mt Albert Rd. Photo / Herald on Sunday.

Citizens & Ratepayers ticket candidates in Mt Roskill were last night trying to put out a bushfire of controversy over a report their leader would be changing the name of the Mt Roskill shops area to Puketapapa.

That is the Maori name given to the local board under the Super City.

But the Central Leader newspaper reported present Mt Roskill Community Board chairman Richard Barter as saying the shops at the intersection of Dominion Rd and Mt Albert Rd would be "rebranded" as the Puketapapa Village Centre.

A Mt Roskill resident for 50 years, Brian Nicol, said he was shocked and angered when he read the report about the name-change.

"It's come out of the blue. We as Mt Roskill residents had no idea that this was in the wind.

"Puketapapa is a mouthful ... I have to take my teeth out to say it."

Mr Barter was worried after taking a phone call from Mr Nicol.

"It was only a suggestion ... I raised it as being one suggestion that had been floated at meetings," he said.

"People know it as the Roskill Shops, but there are three lots ofRoskill shops, so there's a degree of ambiguity."