Debbie Porteous

A business that expanded into Australia two and a-half years ago is keeping the link with Queenstown strong.

It is not very often a community group approaches Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes district councils' community road adviser Jo Henderson and says it wants to raise money for road safety.

After a hitch or two, the demolition of a 50m industrial chimney at Burnside, Dunedin, went off with a bang on Saturday.

Applause broke out at a forum on the topic of ACC in Dunedin on Saturday when the National Party's candidate for Dunedin North, Michael Woodhouse, agreed that an independent authority should be set up to deal with complaints against the corporation.

Dunedin smokers will instantly be fined up to $150 if caught dropping cigarette butts on the city's streets if the Dunedin City Council heeds a petition to be presented to it early next year.

A Dunedin couple has warned people to think of their own safety before giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to someone they do not know, after helping out at this accident on South Rd last month.

An inquest into the March 2005 death of Dunedin teenager Nicholas Munro was adjourned yesterday following an indication to the coroner from Mr Munro's family that it intended to lodge a complaint with the Independent Police Conduct Authority.

A registrar's decision to renew the licence of two Dunedin private investigators has highlighted the lead objector's obstructive and defiantly aggressive manner during a hearing at the Dunedin District Court last week.

The Otago Regional Rescue Helicopter service had a successful year, with the transition from one major sponsor to another well managed, Otago Rescue Helicopter Trust chairman Ross Black says.

'Put up or shut up' is what Peter Gibbons and Graeme Scott have to say to their critics. For nearly two years, the Dunedin private investigators have been at the centre of allegations from some ACC recipients of inappropriate behaviour while they were contracted to ACC's fraud unit. Now legal proceedings against them are over, Mr Gibbons and Mr Scott speak out. Debbie Porteous reports.