Helensville, like most small towns in New Zealand, relies on community-minded people to get a lot of things done.

It's hard to imagine where we would be without all those good souls. Look at the wonderful resource the town now has in the Riverside Walkway - organised and built (with much hard work over a considerable period) by volunteers.

The walkway of course links the middle of Commercial Road with the Riverside Reserve and the newly re-located Pioneer Museum. That's another perfect example of a community asset that we simply wouldn't have without the numerous volunteers who give their time, brainpower, and often goods and materials to keep projects like this alive.

Take the Helensville A&P Show. It's been running - on volunteer power - for more than 100 years. It's one of the largest shows in the Northern District, and on showday (the last Saturday in each February) literally hundreds of people give up their day to help run the show - whether they be stewards, judges, parking attendants or plain dogs bodies.

For most it's not really too onerous. I've been a photography steward for around 20 years now - it's one afternoon, one evening and show day. But without all those stewards chipping in together, the town would lose the largest event on it's annual calendar.

The list of community benefactors is huge - think of the contributions over the years of the local business people who have been members of the Helensville Business Association. Who organises our annual Christmas Parade? The business association of course.

All those sports clubs that give our children (and adults too) something to do on a Saturday morning - they're run by volunteers. There's the Lions Club of Helensville, the Women's Institute ... I'm going to stop there, because if I try to list them all, I'm bound to forget someone and cause offence!

So come on people - if you aren't already involved in something to help make our town run that little bit better, now's the time to pitch in. Organisations like the A&P Association are always looking for new members - some of the current ones have been there for 50 years and need a rest!

With all the talk at the moment about amalgamating the various councils that make up the Auckland Region into one "Super City" (or three "semi-super cities" if Auckland, North Shore, Waitakere and Manukau cities get their way), where will that leave Helensville?

Under the the mayors' proposal, Rodney District will be swallowed by North Shore City.

A significant percentage of Helensville area residents already feel a bit like second-class citizens in Rodney.

Asked in a recent poll on the Helensville Online website: "Is Helensville fairly treated compared to other Rodney communities in terms of amenities and civic design?", 94 percent of respondents voted "No" and only six percent said yes.

It seems the more affluent areas to the east (Whangaparaoa, Orewa etc) get a better shake of the stick than us when it comes to provision of amenities. One example - the big roundabout at the end of Highway 16. Over in the East, they get lovely gardens in their roundabouts, whereas we get a ginormous blob of red chip seal.

We are already a small part of a large district; can we really expect our situation not to be even worse if we become a tiny part of an enormous city? If Eastern Rodney currently receives preferential treatment (which of course the Council denies), surely it's safe to assume that Takapuna, Milford et al will be top of the heap if we become part of a greatly expanded North Shore City. You can guess who will be bottom of the pile.

And if the whole region is turned into one giant Super City, where will that leave the small towns like Helensville?