Knife-point carjacking
Police are looking for a man in his late 20s and a stolen car after a carjacking in Kamo on Friday night. Senior Sergeant Brian Swann said a man was sitting in his car in the Mobil forecourt when another man threatened him with a knife and demanded he
got out of his car about 8pm.
The man with the knife, described as a European aged around 25 to 30, then drove off at speed in the victim's vehicle.
The vehicle is a grey Mitsubishi Galant with license plate LEC660.
The incident is being investigated by Whangārei CIB. Anyone with information or sightings of the car can contact Whangārei Police on 09 4304500.
This carjacking comes after an 82-year-old man was bashed and had his car stolen after picking up two hitchhikers in Kerikeri last month. Police have since arrested three people in relation to that incident.
Health workers thanked
Health Minister David Clark has used his visit to Northland to thank the district's health workers for their effort and commitment despite a decade of financial strain.
Clark, who was in Northland last week to open the rebuilt Bay of Islands Hospital in Kawakawa and a hospice sorting centre in Kerikeri, said Northland District Health Board staff did a ''fantastic job'' serving a diverse and growing population.
''I take my hat off to them. They've worked in increasingly stretched and stressed conditions over the last decade, and they've continued to serve the public,'' he said.
''We are putting more money into health but we can't do it all in one budget. In the meantime those staff continue to deliver and I want to say thank you to them.''
Vintage rail security
Thanks to "excellent" sponsorship from ARA Security, the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway Trust has installed a state of the art security system at its railway station, workshop and yard in Kawakawa.
This would ensure that those responsible for any repeat of the attack on 78-year-old volunteer Mike Bradshaw in April last year, break-ins at the shop and café and stealing sleepers would now be quickly identified and appropriate police action taken, spokesman Johnson Davis said.
It was also intended that the cameras would become part of a town-wide network.
Canada and back
An experienced planner, who has helped manage the growth of Canada's fourth-largest city, is about to return to New Zealand to join the Far North District Council's Strategic Leadership Team.
Darrell Sargent will take up his position as general manager — strategic planning and policy on October 23, succeeding Kath Ross, who became the Masterton District Council's chief executive last month.
Sargent, who is currently a planning manager for the city of Calgary, has held a number of project management and planning roles since he moved to Canada in 2011.
Prior to that he had worked for Meridian Energy in Christchurch and the Northland Regional Council, based in Whangārei.