Greymouth Star

The aquatic centre part of the Westland Recreation Centre will close in three weeks' time until at least the end of October while the sagging beams in the pool complex are replaced.

The Pike River Mine families today signed a memorandum with most political parties - except National and Act - to create a special agency solely in charge of the mine recovery effort.

West Coast police say they are appalled after a weekend of drink-driving offences, including one drunk Greymouth man driving on the wrong side of the road on the Cobden Bridge before running into a police patrol.

Measurements showing an improvement in Reefton's infamous winter smog may be because they moved the sample site, the West Coast Regional Council heard this week.

The West Coast Regional Council learned of major river works being done by the Westland District Council to shore up the threatened sewerage ponds at Franz Josef Glacier only after seeing a Facebook post by Westland Mayor Bruce Smith.

A 90-year-old Westport woman was on the phone to Parliament this morning to join the fight against the new family health centre to replace the ageing Buller Hospital.

Joining with another tertiary education organisation is one of two options on the cards for the struggling Tai Poutini Polytechnic, as it carves out a path to survival.

The demand for firewood in the dying weeks of winter has left West Coast suppliers struggling to keep up.

More information has been leaked about the $11 million investment announced by the Government for a minerals research institute to be set up in Greymouth.

A trio accused of aggravated robbery two from Christchurch and a third from Hokitika were nabbed in Hokitika yesterday after police pieced together their involvement in the aggravated robbery of a Christchurch motel last weekend.

Three leading groups opposing the Westpower hydro-electric proposal for the Waitaha River claimed today a draft decision had already been made and called for it to be released before the general election in September.

A northern Buller man sparked a five-hour stand-off with armed police after he allegedly threatened to shoot the local policeman when he responded to a domestic incident in Hector.

A man who "lost his rag" at the Greymouth Work and Income office, yesterday pleaded guilty to a charge of speaking threateningly.

The New Zealand catering and hospitality industry has paid tribute to Scott Richardson, a highly regarded chef who died yesterday morning in Dunedin Hospital.

Rapidly rising floodwaters today nearly thwarted the rescue of an 85-year-old man who spent a winter's night out in the open after falling from a ladder in a remote site.