Chris Morris

Plans for a new pool at Mosgiel - or improvements to Dunedin's existing Moana Pool - need to be progressed more quickly, a Dunedin city councillor says.

Paul Simon is bringing his guitar and hits from several decades to Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Fears reform of the local government sector poses a serious threat to the Dunedin City Council's group of companies and their activities are to be investigated.

Dunedin's formal bid for a slice of the 2015 Fifa Under-20 World Cup and its global television audience has been quietly scrapped because of concerns about the cost.

A decade of discipline is needed to protect the Dunedin City Council's fragile finances until debt repayments ease the fiscal squeeze, council chief executive Paul Orders says.

Management of the Dunedin Chinese Garden is to be merged with the neighbouring Toitu Otago Settlers Museum as part of a shake-up designed to minimise the garden's cost to ratepayers.

The chairman of the Dunedin City Council's aquatic facilities working party says questions will be asked after the estimated cost of a new Mosgiel swimming pool complex jumped by more than 50% to $18 million.

Plans for a $100 million five-star hotel on Dunedin's waterfront are to go back to submitters for another round of public consultation.

Dunedin city councillors will gather behind closed doors today to get to grips with an early budget that forecasts a rates rise of just 2.8% for the coming financial year.

Safety and potential economic benefits were back on the agenda when talk of oil and gas exploration resumed in Dunedin yesterday.

Dunedin city councillors will have to choose between a 2.8% rates rise and extra spending on key priorities - including debt repayment - that will drive up the bill for ratepayers.

The University of Otago faces a ''large'' rates hike for its Executive Residence amid complaints it has been undercutting private hotels by offering on the open market rooms meant for university guests.

A Dunedin weather enthusiast says the city gets a raw deal from its official temperature readings - and he has the temperature gauges to prove it.

Two young German tourists are in Dunedin Hospital - one in a ''critical'' condition - after the driver lost control of their vehicle in loose gravel and rolled in the Cromwell Gorge yesterday.

Lifeguards are praising the behaviour of swimmers as the city's beaches prove popular on hot summer days.

The call of the sea has carried Dunedin sailor Stuart McLachlan from Otago Harbour around the world. Now a change of tack has brought him back into familiar waters. Chris Morris reports.

Czech-born novelist, journalist and lecturer Juan Braun has written 30 books and sold hundreds of thousands of copies while tackling some of life's great mysteries - love, politics and spirituality.

The Dunedin City Council's resource consent process has been criticised by the owner of the Kilmog Quarry, north of Dunedin, who says it ''cleaned out'' her business and put jobs on the line.

Weeds might be escaping the attention of Dunedin City Council contractors' sprayguns but it appears perfectly healthy strips of grass aren't always so lucky.