Wesley wins battle over historic name
The stoush for the name Wesley is over.
In April, companies behind a ‘‘new town’’ development in south Auckland submitted an application to the New Zealand Geographic Board ( NZGB) to gain exclusive rights to the name Wesley.
However the people of Wesley in central Auckland’s Mt Roskill refused to accept the proposal and worked together to defend their historic name.
With two different petitions gathering around 1500 signatures, the developer in south Auckland, Grafton Downs Limited, announced on Tuesday it would be withdrawing its application to the NZGB.
While the central Auckland Wesley is not a suburb with a postcode, it does have a primary and intermediate school along with a community centre, largely situated around Sandringham Road.
Grafton Downs executive director Chris Johnston said his board recognised there was overwhelming support in the area for them to retain the name Wesley.
‘‘Rather than take the Wesley name from this passionate community we have decided to look for alternative names for our new town, which we hope will grow with the same united sense of belonging as this one,’’ Johnston said.
‘‘We are humbled that this community is so passionate about a name that is also very important to us and are delighted that it will be retained and cherished for future generations.’’
Wesley Intermediate School principal of 20 years and former student Nigel Davis said the decision was a victory.
‘‘I think from what I’ve found they [Grafton Downs] had no idea about how passionate the people were in this area in regard to the actual name Wesley,’’ Davis said.