Council has shut down the push to rename Neutral Bay’s Ben Boyd Road.

There was widespread public debate about the legacy of Benjamin Boyd Boyd, a colonial entrepreneur who lived in Neutral Bay in the 1840s.

Boyd is known for pioneering the practice of securing cheap labour from the South Sea islands to work in Australia – a practice also known as ‘blackbirding’.

The council backed up feedback from residents, where 54.7 per cent opposed renaming the street.

North Sydney Mayor Jilly Gibson told Ben Fordham “it would have been rather foolish to do anything else”.

“Most of the people who lived on Ben Boyd Road said no … they actually quite like the name of their road.”

A memorial plaque for the explorer was covered up by council last year after activists threatened to vandalise it.

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