Invercargill city news, the council and the people who live here.
Invercargill Mayor Tom Campbell is asking councillors today to join the risk and assurance committee en masse and add a member to the water committee, ahead of a law change that will strip appointed members of their votes.
An Invercargill City Council committee has rejected staff advice to consult on a sinking lid for pokie machines, opting instead to put a cap on venue and machine numbers out for public feedback from 28 October.
Environment Southland issued Invercargill City Council a formal warning on 23 September after an earthquake-damaged outfall pipe spilt treated wastewater onto the foreshore at Ocean Beach, Bluff, and the council is still not meeting its consent conditions.
Fitch Ratings has again rated Invercargill City Council AA+, the seventh year in a row, while noting that debt will rise as the council expands its capital programme and sets up in-house water services.
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith and Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds have walked through the $76.8 million Te Unua Museum of Southland, which the city council expects to open to the public next year.
A council hearings panel has recommended revoking the reserve status of Newfield Park despite most submitters wanting it kept, while advising against the sale of Bluff's JG Ward Reserve.
Southland has no permanent full-time urologist after two specialists resigned this year, and internal Health NZ briefings rated the risk to the service as extreme, with patients sent as far as Christchurch for treatment.
Invercargill City Council has spent about $4.3 million of the $21 million set aside for its Esk Street headquarters on moving staff out, but no repairs have started and a decision on the building's future is not due until 2027.
Plan Change 2 to the Invercargill City District Plan becomes operative on 2 October, allowing terraced housing, smaller attached homes and apartments across the city's main residential zones after no appeals were lodged.
