Stories by Lois Williams

Wheelchair users in Reefton will soon have a safe way of crossing the town's main street, State Highway 7.

A West Coast patient died last year because hospital staff failed to realise the person's condition had deteriorated and did not transfer them in time to a tertiary-level hospital.

Getting around Reefton used to be relatively easy for wheelchair-user Lisa Neil, but that changed after works on the main street and state highways.

Westland Mayor Bruce Smith has appealed to the government to release funds for flood protection work at Franz Josef Glacier before the town dies through tourism starvation.

The West Coast is on the verge of gaining at least one new ghost town unless the government comes through with promised life-support for Franz Josef Glacier, a councillor for the region says.

The West Coast Regional Council is taking a closer look at the row over the Ross lake, where someone has been dismantling a weir built by volunteers to control the lake levels.

Westland Mayor Bruce Smith says his council is willing to help resolve the ongoing stoush over water levels in the artificial Ross Lake, but the regional council is the regulator and should act.

In recent weeks, various medics and their union have aired their views on the use of 'rural generalists', a new breed of doctor increasingly being employed on the West Coast.

West Coast councils are split over what Airbnbs are doing to local communities - and they want a steer from the community on how to treat them.

A household rubbish collection is on the cards at last for Kaikōura residents - but it could add $70 to the average rates bill.

A claim the new Minister of Conservation is an "activist" who will put iwi interests ahead of the environment has been rubbished by a Māori leader.

With the dairy season at its peak, farmers breaching their resource consents have appeared on the West Coast Regional Council's black list for the first time in months.

The West Coast Regional Council has cut its losses and sold its share in a Canterbury-based pesticide factory.

The Department of Conservation has agreed to help with the cost of identifying significant natural areas on public conservation land.

A West Coast regional councillor is calling on Development West Coast to stump up and cover costs that are about to land on ratepayers because of the government's new environmental policies.

An American surgeon working in Greymouth has resigned, saying the people of the West Coast deserve better than a hospital essentially run by GPs.

Coal plays a small part in greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand, Minerals West Coast manager Patrick Phelps told West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board this month.

Kaikōura district councillor Neil Pablecheque has been given a formal warning by police after a complaint that he "attacked" a truck driver for parking in the wrong spot.

How do you get a stoat to swallow a dead rat? First take its photo. That's the cunning plan devised by pest control teams in a remote valley.

An "embarrassingly simple" intervention has made a dramatic difference in Māori patients' ability to keep hospital appointments, West Coast DHB staff say.

West Coast council leaders and conservationists are cautiously endorsing some of the new Cabinet appointments announced yesterday by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

The Ngāi Tahu rūnanga is mounting a legal challenge to the Minister of Conservation's appointment decisions for the West Coast Conservation Board.

The West Coast Regional Council is forging ahead with the four flood protection projects it successfully pitched to the government as shovel-ready projects.

West Coast council leaders are hoping a new minister will be drawn from Labour's own ranks this term - and take a more pro-industry approach to the use of conservation land.

Any changes to the government's new freshwater rules are likely to be minor, according to the new chief executive of the West Coast Regional Council, Vin Smith.