With grass shooting up in the warm and moist spring, mayoral candidate John Palino is promising to reinstate mowing the council-owned berms in the old Auckland City area.

Auckland Council's highlights of the past year include a $1.3 billion spend on improving community facilities.

Housing Minister Nick Smith and Auckland mayor Len Brown were in their own homes before they left university. We asked them how they did it.

On the eastern edge of the Travis Wetland, a nature reserve in Christchurch's urban northeast, Lianne Dalziel, high-end camera in hand, is stalking a potter of pukeko.

Mayors throughout the country will become more powerful under new law changes set to come into action after October's local elections.

The 21 winners of Auckland's health board elections will be required to induce GPs to check more patients' hearts and offer more help to quit smoking.

Some high profile candidates in Auckland's local body elections are angry their profiles were left out of a booklet that goes out with voting papers.

Four years since the creation of Whau - carved from areas previously managed by two different councils - residents still struggle to identify themselves as one ward.

With the voters of Orakei having a bye for the ward seat on Auckland Council the focus shifts to the Local Board.

Brian Rudman fears the Joyce Team will conjure up some role for The Cloud in a future America's Cup regatta, dragging its "temporary" status out for years.

A group of the country's most senior police officers have attacked plans to allow city bars to stay open three hours later than pubs in the suburbs.

The images of themselves that people have chosen in an attempt to earn our support on billboards are unrelievedly unflattering, says Paul Little.

Spiralling rates and views blocked by high-rise developments may seem like First World problems to the poorest residents of Maungakiekie-Tamaki.

What's in a name? Plenty, when you're at the bottom of an alphabetically ordered ballot form. And that's why some local body candidates are changing their names.