Residents support new town centre

The prospect of a new town centre at the end of the Northwestern Motorway has won cautious support from Massey and West Harbour residents.

Retired engineer Graeme Barnard said he was "optimistically excited" about the development.

"Westgate was not built along what you would call posh lines and from what we have been told this one will be more upmarket. We see it as a logical step forward."

Lynn Springett of the Oxygen designer fashion store at Westgate said: "We do have West City close by at Henderson, so I'm wondering whether we need more shops. We also have New Lynn and there is Glenfield on the North Shore. But the area is growing all the time."

Massey resident Helen Jones said she would be concerned if development was not balanced by social services and facilities for families and young people.

"Increasing numbers of young people hang out at Westgate because there's nothing else to do."

Resident Colin Tucker said he would rather see development there than in the Waitakere Ranges and foothills. But he was concerned at how pedestrians and cyclists would safely reach the development across major roads.

Warren Flaunty, a city councillor who has been a Massey businessman for 38 years, said he would be pleased for the city to get a third major town centre after New Lynn and Henderson.

City councillor and West Harbour resident Linda Cooper said pushing out the urban limits would provide jobs to counter the mass exodus of residents down the motorway each morning.

She hoped the community would make views known to the ARC before submissions closed next Tuesday.

However, city councillor Assid Corban said extending the city limits was not warranted.

"It will put pressure on the semi-rural land there for urban development. They would need it to sustain the viability of these big centres and that's not what the city really wants."