Stories by Lois Williams

The irrational attitude of anti-vaxxers is damaging Reefton's hospitality, health services, and reputation, says Inangahua Community Board's chairperson.

Planners writing new regulations to protect native bush on private land are suggesting one set of rules for Grey district and another for Buller and Westland.

Barrytown JV Ltd wants to mine 63ha of farmland on the Barrytown Flats for ilmenite and other minerals. Councils have recommended granting consent under certain conditions.

The number of West Coast people waiting for surgery or a specialist's assessment has soared in recent weeks because of Covid constraints, the vaccine mandate and staff shortages.

Community workshops are under way to help West Coast residents prepare for Covid-19.

In its first prosecution involving damage to a protected wetland, the West Coast Regional Council took John Cowan to court earlier this year for excavating a 270m-long drain adjoining Department of…

Governance costs for the West Coast Regional Council have nearly doubled in the past three months, prompting a "please explain" from the council's finance monitors.

Reefton's economic development officer Rachel Fifield says she and her husband would close the gym they operate rather than exclude people not vaccinated against Covid-19.

A new mental health unit for the West Coast is back on track after getting the nod from the government's capital investment committee.

Soaring rates bills on the West Coast are forcing some homeowners on low incomes to consider selling up.

Most farmers have no intention of destroying native bush just to get in ahead of new rules protecting significant natural areas, according to Grey Valley farmer Anton Becker.

Only West Coast Regional Council chair Allan Birchfield has declined to reveal if he was vaccinated saying that was no one's business but his own.

Barrytown JV Ltd wants resource consents from the Regional and Grey District Councils to mine privately-owned farmland for ilmenite and other minerals, over an eight-year period.

Councillors who voted to forge ahead with mapping significant natural areas on the West Coast are likely to lose their seats at the next election in retaliation, the regional council chairman says.

West Coast Regional Council chairman Allan Birchfield has lost his bid to bar significant natural areas from private land.

Buller Electricity Trust chairman Frank Dooley is urging Westport people to get in behind the plan to protect the town with floodwalls and stopbanks.

Manawhenua have dropped objections to a mining venture on the Barrytown flats after the original plans were modified.

The elusive leak draining Reefton's water supply is still evading discovery but could be revealed soon, with the arrival of a team of expert leak detectives.

Reefton's public toilets could come crashing down in an earthquake - but replacements have been delayed in part because of debate and indecision about what the new loos should look like.

This week's meeting of the region's emergency management committee agreed to carry out a debrief on how the crisis was handled, with support from the National Emergency Management Agency.

A landowner whose family farmed near Franz Josef for decades says it is not the best idea to let the river have its way on the south bank, as the government and councils are now proposing.

In a shock move today, three members of the West Coast Conservation Board have resigned saying they have been called racist for raising what they see as conflicts between the interests of conservation…

The government and the West Coast Regional Council have finally signed off on funding for floodwall upgrades at Franz Josef Glacier.

The Cave Creek tragedy is generating lessons for new conservation recruits, 25 years after 13 students and a DOC worker plunged to their deaths from a jerry-built viewing platform.

West Coast ratepayers will not be in the gun for the hefty fine imposed on its former joint venture Pest Control Research, after one of its workers was poisoned by 1080.