Papakura residents were awoken about 5am today to the sounds of explosions from a car ablaze in a Red Hill parking lot.

Housing NZ has bought a motel to help meet the area's housing shortage - but the existing residents will have to move out to make room for the homeless.

Sprucing up tired town centres, public safety and managing ongoing residential growth are the biggest concerns for Manurewa-Papakura ward voters.

Developers who pushed for fast-track development rights in some of Auckland's special housing areas are now walking away from the process.

Looming lapse of the affordability rule in up to half of special housing areas sparks land-banking accusations.

The man who at the centre of an armed offenders call out in Papakura today has died.

A truck full of milk is on fire on a dock in the Auckland suburb of Papakura.

A woman with stab wounds ran onto the road carrying a baby and screaming for help this afternoon, a witness has described.

One of the more basic properties in Papakura is probably now also one of the cheapest.

Police have released a photo of a man wanted in connection with a shooting in South Auckland.

The northbound lanes of Auckland's Southern Motorway just before the Papakura on ramp are now open following a serious crash involving multiple vehicles.

Thomas Shortcliffe allegedly cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet in the latest among a series of incidents involving offenders tampering with GPS anklets.

Dozens of graves - for mostly children and stillborn babies - were trashed in Auckland cemetery.

A four car pile up on the southern motorway could cause headaches for commuters this morning.

The fifth seal in two weeks has come to shore in South Auckland - this time in Manurewa. Earlier this afternoon a seal had been spotted in Wattle Downs, Manurewa. That seal has since been returned to its natural habitat by the Department of Conservation.

The fifth seal in two weeks has come to shore in South Auckland - this time in Manurewa.

It is not the infamous seal that took over a car wash in the area earlier this week... this time, it's a baby!

Watch: DOC officers finally capture loose seal that caused chaos in South Auckland and "freaked out" morning commuters.

The man responsible for the desecration of about 30 infant graves at Auckland's Papakura Cemetery remains uncaught.

A police spokeswoman today said police had spoken with a couple of other potential witnesses, but not the person in the video footage.

After the desecration of children’s graves at a cemetery, several members of the public have approached police to help with the investigation.

A mother whose baby's grave was destroyed in an act of vandalism has welcomed news that police are narrowing in on the offender.

A South Auckland community is rallying around the families of children whose graves were vandalised, with donations and offers of help pouring in.

A picture is emerging of the man who destroyed dozens of children's graves at an Auckland cemetery, police say.

The man who desecrated dozens of children’s graves at a South Auckland cemetery was caught on CCTV footage, police say.

A big state-owned site in Auckland once earmarked for social and affordable housing is being carved up for sale.

A 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in a "brazen" daylight attack in Papakura, police say.