Rodney split vexes local businessman

Rodney residents did not want to be part of the Super City - but if they had to join they should have been all in it together, says the head of a local business group.

Neil Barr, chairman of the Rodney Economic Development Trust, said residents opposed joining Auckland but joining them all up would have been preferable to splitting the district into two.

"It should have been all in or all out," he said, after plans to part north Rodney and south Franklin from the Super City were formally announced yesterday. "The majority wanted Rodney to stay together."

Mr Barr, who is a property investor and retailer in Rodney, said both parts of the district would suffer.

The strongly rural industries south of Waiwera - including wineries, dairy farms and forestry - would lose their voice once part of Auckland.

"Talking to [Local Government Minister Rodney] Hide and [Prime Minister John] Key, they have no understanding of rural industry."

Mr Barr said less affluent parts of the district further north would struggle to grow once they were joined with Kaipara.

Councillor Greville Walker, whose Helensville home will be part of the Super City, said the split was inevitable but he believed it had been done too quickly.

However he agreed with splitting from rural areas further north. "People (up there) wanted to protect their rural identity." In his area "the bulk of people work in Auckland and live right on its doorstep".