Rebecca Fox

More testing is needed in the Pomahaka River catchment to fully understand the effects of land use on the area's water quality, the Otago Regional Council says.

Silence reigned in Otago Boys High School library on Saturday, as Dunedin secondary school chess players fought for a place in the national final.

Exploring early Maori performance styles long lost and developing a new dance form from them is the aim of Maori choreographer Louise Potiki-Bryant.

Ebony Hinds was not concerned about being probably the only person wearing black in the French section of Carisbrook on Saturday night.

Police have named the 29-year-old woman who died in a four-wheel-drive 4WD accident near Mosgiel on Friday night as Roberta (Bobbi) MacDonald, of Mosgiel.

A proposal by the Ministry of Fisheries to cut about eight management jobs from its Dunedin office has been softened after submissions from staff.

A study of five Otago lakes, including the two largest freshwater bodies in the region - lakes Wanaka and Wakatipu - will allow the Otago Regional Council to monitor their health.

A close eye will be kept on the Government's review of air quality standards to ensure the outcome is good for Otago, the chairman of the Otago Regional Council, Graeme Martin, says.

An attempt to have the Otago Regional Council more thoroughly investigate alternative sites for its proposed waterfront office block failed by one vote.

Residents living near the proposed site of a McDonald's restaurant and McCafe in Hartstonge Ave, Mosgiel, are opposed to the plan, worried about it attracting an "undesirable element", its late opening hours and it creating noise, traffic, litter and smell.

The announcement of 100 new paramedics for frontline emergency services and more training for rural volunteers nationwide was a "long time coming", a St John spokesman said yesterday.

The 2009 Bluff oyster season, described as "magnificent" by one processor, is nearly over.

Weather statistics have confirmed what we all suspected about May - it was colder and wetter than normal, with some areas receiving two or three times the average rainfall.

Two recent search and rescue operations in the Silver Peaks area, near Dunedin, have highlighted the importance of warnings in a new brochure for trampers that it is "rugged, challenging country; very exposed, with weather conditions that can change rapidly".

With majority support for a pest eradication programme on Otago Peninsula to protect its biodiversity values, it was now time to go the next step - finding out how many and where the possums were.