If there is a tendency for businesspeople's lips to curl at the very sight of their local council offices, writes Brian Fallow, the reaction may be unfair or at least misdirected.

The New Zealand Maori Council has been given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court over water rights.

Gerry Brownlee and Len Brown have clashed over a report recommending plans for Auckland's proposed rail link. Do we need it? Vote here.

Thirteen days before the world's top male triathletes dived into the chilly, salty Waitemata Harbour for the grand final of their championship series, the water was sampled for signs of bacterial contamination.

Auckland Council scientists are developing a computer model that will predict, for beach swimmers, the amount of sewage pollution on any given day.

Lessons will be learned, future lives saved, but for families of Canterbury Television building earthquake victims there will never be closure.

A series of errors over 20 years led to the catastrophic collapse of the CTV building in the second major Christchurch quake, a Royal Commission has found.

Families of Canterbury Television building collapse victims have welcomed the findings of a royal commission into the building's collapse.

A Lake Rotoiti hapu will blockade a boat ramp tomorrow to force public access to a private boat ramp which is built on the Maori-owned lake bed.

Instead of calling a dead dog's owner to say their pet had been hit by a car, an Auckland call centre said they would send a street cleaner to pick it up.

Fifty years ago, a teacher in Coromandel town predicted to her student that their charming settlement would one day be a suburb of Auckland.

Two scientists speaking at a major freshwater conference have described reversing the fouling of New Zealand's waterways as our largest environmental problem.

Legislation the Government says will rein in local authority rates increases was passed yesterday amid Opposition criticism it was unjustified and would result in reduced services to communities.

The Maori Council's challenge to the Government's partial asset sales plan is likely to bypass the Court of Appeal and go directly to the Supreme Court early next year in order to meet the looming deadline for the sale of Mighty River Power.

Aucklanders will have to wait longer to catch a tram from Britomart to Wynyard Quarter to help trim rates next year.