West Coast

A man today admitted strangling and stabbing to death a Greymouth mother, and then stuffing her body in her car boot.

The ongoing delay in completing and commissioning the new Te Nikau Grey Hospital means current imaging equipment used by West Coast DHB staff is now breaking down with patients facing increased health risks from the x-ray machines.

Devastating storms in March and December cost the West Coast more than $100 million in damage and lost income.

Work has begun to transform the Grey District Council events area at the Greymouth aerodrome with permanent roadways to be ready in time for the 2020 West Coast Ag Fest, to avoid the mud bath of the last Ag Fest two years ago.

Paroa siblings Truan, left, and Tauri Powell are whipping up a treat selling fresh fruit cones at their pop-up ice-cream cart in Greymouth, outside the Makura croquet greens.

The whitebait fishery in New Zealand will be altered to largely follow what already happens on the West Coast, including a shortened season, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today.

Former Greymouth mayor Tony Kokshoorn has spoken out how he sliced his leg open with a chainsaw, in a bid to stop others from making the same mistake.

With a backlog of district bridge maintenance looming and increasing allowable heavy truck maximum tonnages now impacting on Grey District Council bridges who will pay for the increased maintenance, upgrades and replacements now needed is one the council will grapple with this year in the rates round.

Moteliers in Greymouth who have opened their doors to the homeless as the rental shortage across Westland increases have had to deal with fights and drug problems.

The sight of Grey District Council children's playgrounds cordoned off by security fences have come as a rude surprise to families seeking a holiday outing this summer.  However the council assures it should be situation normal shortly.