Councils

Nobody will say how many private investors put their hand up to take over a struggling Fiordland airport — not the council that owns it, and not the agency it paid to run the process. Te Anau Airport Manapouri has cost Southland District Council an extra $2.1 million just to

Gore District Council has backed both competing Southland local government reform proposals, writing to the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport ahead of the government's August 9 deadline. The council confirmed support for both the two-unitary Greater Southland proposal developed by Southland District Council and the single-unitary

Invercargill City Council has successfully switched its payroll system to a cloud-based platform, processing its first live pay run for around 550 employees in early July 2026. The new system, built on TechnologyOne's Human Resources and Payroll platform and implemented by Australian technology firm Atturra, replaces a patchwork

Parts of Southland's roading network are approaching a "tipping point", and the district mayor has put that warning in writing to the country's transport agency. Southand District Mayor Rob Scott has written a pointed letter to NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) chair Simon Bridges, questioning

Southland District Council will submit a merger proposal for local government reform — even though most of the people it asked said not to. Councillors voted on Wednesday to back a Head Start proposal for two councils to govern the region: a Southland-Gore unitary council and an Invercargill unitary council. The

Someone keeps turning Invercargill's Gala St fountain into a bubble bath — and it's costing ratepayers more than $5000 a year to clean up. The soap suds prank, a recurring nuisance at the city centre fountain, requires staff to neutralise the foam with vinegar around 50 times

Southland councils have been scrambling to finalise their Head Start proposals before the August 9 deadline, with the Gore District hedging their bets across two. Invercargill City councillors voted today (August 6) to move ahead with their unitary authority model proposal for Southland, including Gore. But it wasn’t without

Gore District Council is staying in the room on local government reform — but making clear it hasn't agreed to anything yet. Following an extraordinary council meeting today, Gore agreed to keep exploring reform proposals from both Invercargill City Council and Southland District Council under the Government's