Chris Morris

The Dunedin City Council is vowing to press ahead with an ambitious community-owned fibre broadband network, regardless of government support, and is backed by irate city businesses.

An online virtual shopping mall being developed in Dunedin, which collapsed after receiving ratepayers' funds last year, finally looks set for a rebirth.

Cr Michael Guest says he does not regret a quip aimed at a Dunedin anti-fluoride campaigner, and will not apologise.

A two-year wait for an apology from KiwiRail is finally over for an Australian tourist injured after being thrown from Dunedin's pedestrian overbridge when it was struck by a passing freight train.

Child minders, web designers and anyone else working from home could also face overnight hikes in their rates bills, if they - like bed and breakfast owners - suddenly found their rating classifications had been changed, Dunedin city councillors have heard.

An angry ratepayer walked out, and the confrontational style of others, angered councillors, as the heat in submissions rose during the second day of the Dunedin City Council annual plan hearings yesterday.

They have band names like Dark Resurrection, Dr Elongationist and Sewage, but they might soon be known as the next Opshop or Kora.

Former councillor Maurice Prendergast returned to the Dunedin City Council's table as a submitter yesterday, but come October he hopes to be back in a more familiar seat.

Dunedin City Council staff say part of an existing cemetery - as well as other sites around Dunedin - could be used to meet the growing demand for natural burials.

A delegation of Otago leaders will later this month attempt to make their mark on 70 million visitors to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

The Dunedin City Council has launched an investigation into claims one of its cemetery workers exhumed the ashes of a recently deceased man and moved them - without consulting the dead man's widow.

Homeowners illegally siphoning off a share of Dunedin's water supply without paying could be slapped with backdated bills.

A list originally naming 2000 sites across Otago suspected of chemical contamination has been released, but only after itself being cleaned up by the Otago Regional Council.

Admiring his prize-winning chrysanthemum "Ralph Lambert" is Michael Coulter (left), of Christchurch, and Dunedin Horticultural Show president Dave Young at the national chrysanthemum show at Forbury Park at the weekend.