David Loughrey

An assurance the Forsyth Barr Stadium will cost the average ratepayer no more than $66 a year cannot be true, when other costs for the project have increased, Stop the Stadium's counsel Len Anderson says.

The Dunedin City Council may be reeling from a barrage of criticism from an angry public, but Mayor Peter Chin says the decisions it has made to support major multimillion-dollar projects are the right ones.

Luck ran out yesterday for a fugitive who had eluded capture for three weeks, when he was caught by police, bitten by a police dog and cut and grazed by gorse and undergrowth.

The Dunedin central business district will get another 22 loading zones as the city council scrambles to respond to the anger unleashed over its new parking regime.

Stop the Stadium's counsel Len Andersen called yesterday for a contract to build the Forsyth Barr Stadium to be quashed so "proper consultation" could be held, despite being told the horse may have already bolted.

The Dunedin City Council took on Stop the Stadium's processes at the Court of Appeal in Wellington this week, claiming the group did not stick to the rules within its own constitution.

The Dunedin City Council will underwrite Otago Rugby Football Union debt for the next three years as part of a deal which includes the purchase of Carisbrook for $7 million.

Dunedin reaped a $5.3 million benefit from the All Blacks-France test match in June, a new report says, a figure the Dunedin City Council claims has "a whole new meaning" with the Forsyth Barr Stadium under construction.

Transtasman flights could cost as little as $80 if an initiative to scrap departure taxes and other government-related costs for flights between Australia and New Zealand goes ahead, Dunedin International Airport Ltd chairman Cr Richard Walls says.

Last-minute changes have been put forward as the Dunedin City Council votes on whether to go ahead with special consultation on major changes to the city's recycling regime.

It may not cause the sort of global sensation Scottish singer Susan Boyle did when she racked up 60 million hits on YouTube, but the Dunedin City Council is hoping the video-sharing site might help with its consultation.

Mcdonald's Restaurants took its proposal for a Mosgiel restaurant to a Dunedin City Council resource consent hearing yesterday, claiming the effect on nearby residents would be minor, and much less than could occur in what is a large-scale retail zone.

A New Zealand Historic Places Trust submission to a resource consent hearing in Dunedin yesterday resulted in some terse exchanges, as Otago-Southland area manager Owen Graham raised the hackles of both the applicant and the hearings committee.

Opponents of a proposal to demolish a series of protected historic buildings in Princes St roundly criticised the plan at a resource consent hearing yesterday.

Otago rugby players, and visitors to the province, will have a new challenge when they play at the Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Work driving piles into the ground at the Forsyth Barr Stadium site is going ahead successfully, but the most difficult stage of the project, lifting about 700 tonnes of steel roof trusses into place 35m above ground, will be the major challenge of the project.

The Otago Regional Council looks set to become embroiled in the sort of internal bickering that is more usually the territory of its city council cousin, with the fallout from Wednesday's meeting looking likely to result in a code of conduct complaint.