Stu Oldham

Engineering businesses warn any hit to KiwiRail's Hillside Engineering workshops will hurt Otago's economy as unions vow to stand alongside workers worried about their future.

Kiwirail has awarded an estimated $29 million manufacturing contract to a Chinese company in what has been derided as a potentially terminal blow to its Dunedin workshop.

Scenic Hotel Group has scaled back plans to add new floors to its Hotel Dunedin City leading up to the Rugby World Cup.

Declaring most of Dunedin's flat land at risk of liquefaction will not change the way two of New Zealand's biggest property insurers treat the city, the companies say.

The gleaming evidence of convicted fraudster Michael Swann's Rolls-Royce lifestyle sits in rows in a Dunedin warehouse.

Solid Energy is defending its plans for Southland lignite after Parliament's environmental watchdog suggested it made no sense for taxpayers to spend billions of dollars subsidising even one lignite-to-diesel conversion plant.

Converting Dunedin's passenger bus fleets to electric trolley buses could cost many millions of dollars - and ratepayers, rather than public transport users, might have to foot the bill, insiders suggest.

Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull spent more than $13,000 in his campaign to win the mayoral chains - nearly $30,000 less than Peter Chin did in his campaign not to lose them.

Four anonymous benefactors have donated $2.7 million to Dunedin's new stadium, pitching total fundraising close to $38 million.

The Dunedin City Council looks set to increase its capacity to borrow by $250 million to provide security for gross debt that should hit $712 million by 2013.

The Dunedin City Council's main offices were evacuated yesterday after a backup battery pack in the Civic Centre's computer server room started to "cook itself".

An audit report says the way the Dunedin City Council controls its purchase-card system is "sound" but staff need more direction on what they can use their cards for.

Charging film-makers $500 a day to work around Dunedin could penalise small productions and undermine a local industry that runs on the smell of an oily rag, city councillors say.

An irrigation system could be installed on the Forsyth Barr Stadium's roof if dew prevents sufficient light getting to the playing pitch, it was revealed yesterday.

Roadworkers will soon help Dunedin's southern gateway lose its bottleneck after officials yesterday confirmed they had the money to widen it.