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?