West Coast

Pressure is mounting on the government to release $24 million earmarked for the hurting tourism town of Franz Josef.

Complaints that wheelchair users face barriers to access a community meeting room will be looked into, the Buller District Council says.

Westland Mayor Bruce Smith is rejecting a claim by the region's MP Damien O'Connor that there is no long-term plan for the future of Franz Josef township.

Government officials have put the brakes on the $24 million project to shore up the floodwalls around Franz Josef Glacier village and build a new bridge over the wild Waiho (Waiau) River.

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.

An old landfill that spewed rubbish along 100 kilometres of West Coast coastlines will be removed.

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.

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.

A slip has closed the main highway on the South Island's West Coast, north of the Fox River bridge, near White Horse creek.

The mystery of why native Westland petrel fledglings keep crash-landing on the West Coast continues, after new LED street lights through Punakaiki were switched off to try to help them during their…

The work to re-enter the Pike River mine has reached a significant step, with the workers last night reaching the Rocsil Plug near the end of the drift.

The embattled Canterbury District Health Board and the West Coast District Health board have a new chief executive.

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.