East Taieri School pupils got into the spirit of World Environment Day with enthusiasm yesterday, swinging shovels over their shoulders and carrying their plants and trowels as they headed off to create a new home for skinks and geckos.
From a 10-part challenge to be sustainable, to pupils helping clean up stream habitat, a variety of activities are being planned throughout Otago to mark World Environment Day.
A basic right of every New Zealander to put a dinghy in the sea to get a "feed of fish" will be denied by new measures to protect threatened dolphins, Dunedin recreational fishing advocates say.
Fishermen around the country need to unite and fight the "over the top" measures to protect the rare Hector's and Maui dolphins announced yesterday, Port Chalmers Fishermen's Co-op Society president Neil McDonald says.
An Environment Court judge has declined the Otago Regional Council's application for costs to be awarded to the council after a legal challenge from a Dunedin marine engineering company last year.
How the Otago Regional Council's consultants used or did not use historic flood data in their design of the Leith Lindsay Flood Protection Scheme in Dunedin has been questioned in the second day of an Environment Court appeal of the resource consents granted for the project.
Dunedin accommodation is being booked fast for the first test rugby match the city has hosted in about three years.
Hearing opposition to the Otago Regional Council's proposal to put $37.5 million towards the Awatea St stadium was a "sobering" experience, Carisbrook Stadium Trust chairman Malcolm Farry said.
Developing a plan for delivering improved biodiversity on the Otago Peninsula needs to be thought through and ‘‘owned'' by the community, Department of Conservation technical support officer Bruce McKinlay says.
Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Cairns "philosophically" believes the Awatea St stadium could be of long-term benefit to the region, but wonders where its supporters are.
A proposed 25% increase in bus fares would discourage people from taking buses, submitters at yesterday's Otago Regional Council annual plan hearings warned.
A clear statement is needed from the Otago Regional Council to show what it is doing about climate change, environmental groups say.
It is a price rise 28 years in the making.
Free buses and more shelters were among suggestions made recently to help the Otago Regional Council increase the numbers of bus users.
The Otago Regional Council is considering handing back the city's bus system to the Dunedin City Council.
Dunedin police last night arrested a 32-year-old man in relation to the robberies of six city banks in recent months.
"Everyone is in amazing good spirits" is the message China-based teacher Catherine McKinlay sent home to her parents in Dunedin after an earthquake devastated the southwestern region of the country on Monday.
Nearly 1000 Otago pupils are learning how to remain physically, mentally, spiritually and socially healthy at Dunedin's annual youth expo, which started yesterday.
Frankie Wells wound an Otago scarf around her neck and declared her wholehearted support for the Awatea St stadium - one of the few voices to do so at yesterday's Otago Regional Council plan hearings.
The Otago Regional Council is seeking costs as a result of the recent Environment Court appeal on the Leith Lindsay flood-protection scheme.
