About 1000 people took to the streets of Waitakere this afternoon and hundreds attended a public meeting in Manukau tonight to voice their concerns about being engulfed in the Auckland super city.
They are concerned plans are moving ahead too fast and they are not being properly consulted.
The message to Wellington from Manukau was loud and clear. Around 200 ratepayers piled into the Pacific Events Centre for the first of a series of strategy meetings aimed at getting the Government to rethink its plans for the super city.
At issue for many is losing services like Manukau City Council's free pools policy.
There are also fears about the city losing dividends from airport shares that have helped pay for projects like building the events centre tonight's meeting was housed in.
"You get a sense the community is really waking up on this," says mayor Len Brown, "and so we are determined. I know we are determined in the region, and there is near unanimity across the region on two or three of these key issues."
The Westies took to the streets to voice their disapproval. About 1000 people marched through Henderson to the Waitakere City Council offices, stopping at MP Paula Bennett's office to deliver a letter of protest.
The question now is where to from here for those disaffected with plans for the super city as they stand?
A community coalition between Waitakere and Manukau cities was mooted tonight. A decision will be taken on that before the next meeting on May 11, but coalition or not, both sides are very clear that they will fight this not only to the next local elections, but all the way to the general election.
3 News