West Coast

A bridge south of Fox Glacier will close overnight for repairs from tonight.

Summer has seen no let-up in the number of dodgy environmental deeds investigated by West Coast Regional Council.

Some property owners in Reefton are in for whopping rate increases of more than 200 percent if the Buller District Council adopts a proposed new rating formula.

The Department of Conservation is reminding pet owners of their obligations after the recent death of a rare penguin on the West Coast.

Cameras will be sent into Pike River Mine as part of the police investigation into the 2010 explosion which killed 29 men.

An Otago gasfitter has been fined more than $120,000 for incorrectly installing a gas water heater, leading to the death of a 12-year-old boy.

Pressure is mounting on the government to release $24 million earmarked for the hurting tourism town of Franz Josef.

Complaints that wheelchair users face barriers to access a community meeting room will be looked into, the Buller District Council says.

Westland Mayor Bruce Smith is rejecting a claim by the region's MP Damien O'Connor that there is no long-term plan for the future of Franz Josef township.

Government officials have put the brakes on the $24 million project to shore up the floodwalls around Franz Josef Glacier village and build a new bridge over the wild Waiho (Waiau) River.

Wheelchair users in Reefton will soon have a safe way of crossing the town's main street, State Highway 7.

A West Coast patient died last year because hospital staff failed to realise the person's condition had deteriorated and did not transfer them in time to a tertiary-level hospital.

An old landfill that spewed rubbish along 100 kilometres of West Coast coastlines will be removed.

Getting around Reefton used to be relatively easy for wheelchair-user Lisa Neil, but that changed after works on the main street and state highways.

Westland Mayor Bruce Smith has appealed to the government to release funds for flood protection work at Franz Josef Glacier before the town dies through tourism starvation.

The West Coast is on the verge of gaining at least one new ghost town unless the government comes through with promised life-support for Franz Josef Glacier, a councillor for the region says.

The West Coast Regional Council is taking a closer look at the row over the Ross lake, where someone has been dismantling a weir built by volunteers to control the lake levels.

In recent weeks, various medics and their union have aired their views on the use of 'rural generalists', a new breed of doctor increasingly being employed on the West Coast.

A slip has closed the main highway on the South Island's West Coast, north of the Fox River bridge, near White Horse creek.

The mystery of why native Westland petrel fledglings keep crash-landing on the West Coast continues, after new LED street lights through Punakaiki were switched off to try to help them during their…