A large majority of Almere city councillors want to rename what planners have dubbed the Amsterdam Bay Area to the Baai van Almere.

Amsterdam Bay Area is used by government officials to describe the lake front area stretching from Amsterdam to deep into Flevoland. But the name has angered locals in Almere, a new city created on reclaimed land which got its first houses in 1976.

“It is as if Almere is a suburb of Amsterdam,” Jeroen Dobber, a councillor for local party Leefbaar Almere, told local broadcaster Omroep Flevoland. Dobber drew up the motion rejecting the “annexation” by Amsterdam.

Labour party councillor Leida Höhle, meanwhile, described the rebranding as “unnecessary Anglicisation”.

Tens of thousands of homes and a new metro line are due to be built in the area in the coming years in a bid to ease the housing crisis.

Officials also call Zandvoort Amsterdam beach and Muiderslot castle Amsterdam castle, in marketing and tourism campaigns.