Stories by Lois Williams

The West Coast Regional Council and local iwi will make history tomorrow when they sign a formal pact to work together.

Saving Jellyman Park at Cobden from the sea will cost at least $1.6 million, and it is not clear who will pay for it.

Greymouth residents who already pay for flood protection will see their rates rise next year to strengthen the town's floodwalls.

Government funding to help farmers and councils deal with new environmental rules is "nowhere near enough" to cover the costs, West Coast Regional Council chairman Allan Birchfield says.

Neurology clinics have been cancelled for the foreseeable future on the coast and patients must now make the trip over the hill to Christchurch.

The days of seeing a different GP every few months may be soon be over for Buller residents.

West Coasters have weighed in with their thoughts on privacy at Greymouth's Te Nikau Hospital, after the issue came up at last week's meeting of the district health board.

West Coast District Health Board chairman Rick Barker says he is not opposed in principle to health reforms that would cull the number of DHBs around the country.

The West Coast Regional Council now has all the details of how much co-funding the government wants from Coast communities, if it is to go ahead with approved 'shovel-ready' flood protection projects.

Now is the time for Coasters to speak up if they'd like to see a favourite old tree saved from the chainsaw.

The government's new rules to protect freshwater quality are not fixed and final and will be 'tweaked' to accommodate regional differences in weather and other factors, Agriculture Minister Damien…

More resource consents, more monitoring, more money and more staff - the government's new rules for managing freshwater will cost the West Coast big-time, Allan Birchfield says.

West Coasters have been left to pay for the costs of removing waste, left throughout the region without consent and no clues to who it belongs to.

Ngāi Tahu representatives have once again pulled out of the West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board, accusing the Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage of an unlawful appointments process.

Wilderness advocates have urged the West Coast Conservation Board to stand up for the rights of people to experience the backcountry without seeing or hearing aircraft overhead.

West Coast Regional Council chairman Allan Birchfield has vowed to bar ecologists from his land if they come looking for significant natural areas.

The first stage of work is beginning to identify significant natural areas (SNAS) on private land on the West Coast.

Three West Coast residents who dug up a wetland, a creek and an eroding beach had no consent for their activities, an investigation has found.

Buller Mayor Jamie Cleine is suggesting Reefton people be consulted over plans to set up a network of security cameras in their town.

Councils working on one district plan for the whole West Coast have grasped the nettle and given the go-ahead for the mapping of significant natural areas (SNAs) on private land.

The burgeoning Gloriavale Christian Community at Lake Haupiri is looking to expand with a second compound at Lake Brunner, West Coast council leaders have heard.

Reefton's long-serving weather guru Tony Fortune believes if people learned to burn coal correctly the town would not have a problem with air pollution.

The government's agreement to fund major flood protection work at Franz Josef Glacier has brought relief and new hope to the small tourist town.

West Coast councils are waiting to hear how much they will have to pitch in for flood protection work largely funded by the government as Covid-recovery 'shovel-ready' projects.

In a first for the West Coast, iwi and the regional council have teamed up with DOC to make the most of funds on offer for nature-based jobs