Hamish MacLean

The Clutha District Council is preparing to bring to ratepayers a draft 10-year plan that would mean a reduction in rates hikes from previous years.

Plans for a cycleway from Lawrence to Waihola are up and moving, but the wheels are turning in a low gear.

Tensions were on display at the weekend as the possibility of a marine reserve being created off Nugget Point again reared its head.

Next week, Bill Bazley will head out on the highway in his 1957 Ford Custom 300, driving about 1500km to the Whangamata 2015 Beach Hop, on the southeast coast of Coromandel, for the five-day rock `n' roll car festival, beginning on March 25.

Two new South Otago initiatives aim to help visiting international drivers negotiate New Zealand roads safely - and neither involves key-snatching.

When Anthony Eyles reached the beach in the 19th Papatowai Challenge on Saturday he followed the tracks his wife and son had made earlier in the sand.

Normalising safe farming practices has been a defining part of outgoing director Charley Lamb's time at Telford, a division of Lincoln University.

Driving skills, English language training and access to services are the top concerns of the growing international workforce in the Clutha district, Clutha District Settlement Support chairwoman Chris Shaw says.

The Stars and Stripes will be flying in West Otago next month.

Staging art exhibitions in West Otago turned what was once a naive arts community into one that has flourished, Central Otago artist Liz Kempthorne says.

A driveway repair contract firm which has left a trail of complaints in Otago towns is under investigation by immigration authorities.

Shareholders of Wool Equities Ltd, the parent company of Milton's Bruce Woollen Mill, have voted down a proposal to sell its shares in the mill.

Scores of volunteers painted a cherished place in the Catlins at the weekend.

A sophisticated gadget tipped to revolutionise New Zealand farming was demonstrated at the Farmarama farm show at Lawrence yesterday.

The font that Southern Anglicans for years have believed was a Norman relic is likely to be less than 200 years old, a specialist in medieval art says.

Road maintenance tops Clutha residents' list of concerns after the latest satisfaction survey.