West Coast Regional Council

West Coast Regional Council chairman Peter Haddock says his recent hospital stay was nothing to do with an alleged altercation involving the council's former chairman.

The inquiry into the removal of a fossil from where it lay at the mouth of the Little Wanganui River for 23 million years until someone hacked it out with a rock saw has stepped up a notch.

The West Coast Regional Council says it intends to keep "good faith" with ratepayers and not impose a further rates increase based on new capital valuations for the region.

A meeting for the Waiho (Waiau) River rating district at Franz Josef Glacier should be convened before the end of this current term of the West Coast Regional Council, a councillor says.

Areas of highly productive land on the West Coast are being included in the new combined district plan for the region.

A proposal in the Te Tai o Poutini Plan for a land instability hazard area - cutting a swathe along the coastal hills behind Greymouth - has come under fire at the West Coast Regional Council.

The West Coast Regional Council has reversed its controversial vote against a wetlands plan years in the making.

The West Coast Regional Council may borrow money to avoid a rate rise this year, its chief executive says.

The Nature Heritage Fund's $6m budget needs a boost if it's to be used to buy up wetlands on private property, West Coast Regional Council's CEO says.

Frustration is at boiling point as Haast locals prepare for their sixth day without power, and rubbish starts to flow through Fox River from a historical landfill.

People in south Westland say they feel neglected and let down after major flooding in the region.