Debbie Porteous

Five people were arrested in Dunedin yesterday following two incidents involving allegedly stolen metal.

There is nothing to stop councils enforcing changes to local bylaws making the wearing of life jackets compulsory before national rules catch up, some regional harbourmasters say.

The driver of a car that crashed, injuring three people, ran from the scene north of Dunedin, and was still unaccounted for last night.

Police are hunting an armed robber who pointed a shotgun and demanded party pills from a Dunedin dairy last night.

Dunedin had more than its fair share of unhappy neighbours in 2010, with more than 2600 people laying noise complaints with the city council.

Original pieces from one of Dunedin's oldest commercial buildings are being saved in the hope one day replicas can be made and the building's facade rebuilt.

Policing in Dunedin will become more "proactive, preventive and visible" in a six-month major reorganisation, officers were told yesterday.

The Dunedin City Council is reviewing its policy on dangerous, insanitary and earthquake-prone buildings, with a view to increased protection of the city's assets.

The number of police-led search and rescue operations in the Southern police district increased 20% last year.

It will be a week before the fate of a 135-year-old building that partially collapsed in central Dunedin will be known.

More buildings in Dunedin's central city are likely to be in a similar state of decay to the Rattray St building that partially collapsed on Wednesday, and the worst should be easy for the council to identify and inspect, a Dunedin structural engineer says.

A new set of Government ears and eyes are about to make New Zealand's deep seas home, and the country's fisheries are not the only likely beneficiaries of the navy's new assets.