Hamilton City Council will be moving to a two-ward electoral system with fewer Councillors at the next local body election. Council voted in favour of moving from three-wards to two-wards at a meeting last year, but an appeal to the Local Government Commission has until now prevented the Council decision being confirmed. The appeal by the Temple View Residents Association has now been withdrawn ... more...

Remedial work on one of Hamilton's most congested areas will begin on Thursday [25 May] to help traffic move more easily over Fairfield Bridge. The two-phase project is part of Access Hamilton and aims to provide relief from excessive congestion in and around Fairfield Bridge during peak travel times. Access Hamilton is the city's transport strategy which aims to improve transport efficiency and ... more...

Hamilton City Council is expecting a substantial correction and apology from the Waikato Times over its reporting of the court hearing on the city's prostitution bylaw in today's paper. Council has been in the High Court this week defending an attempt by a Hamilton brothel to have the bylaw thrown out. Hamilton City Council has not backed down on its anti suburban brothel stance as reported by t... more...

The preliminary result of a Hamilton City Council referendum, for which voting closed at midday today, has come out in favour of continuing with both the fluoridation of the city's water and with the first-past-the post electoral system. The referendum for the two issues was held by postal vote and had a voter turn out of 38 per cent. As well as deciding on whether or not Hamilton should have fl... more...

Large numbers from the Frankton community turned out to get more information about the proposed V8 Supercars event at two information and consultation days specifically targeted at affected residents and businesses. Communication manager Sarah Bettle says that between 600 and 800 people attended the information days held at the Hamilton Workingmen's Club. "The majority of people who came along o... more...

Submissions on Council's Proposed 2006-16 Long-Term Plan closed this week having received 202 submissions. A breakdown of the submissions received is outlined below: Nature of submission Percentage TransportRates/FinancialCity Growth 44 per cent Parks and Gardens/RecreationHydrotherapy PoolHamilton Gardens/PavilionEconomic Development 32 per cent Claudelands Developm... more...

The 2006 Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Awards will have a bigger prize pool as principle sponsor Trust Waikato has increased it's sponsorship to $15,000. This year the winning prize for the awards will be increased from $10,000 to $15,000 per annum for a period of three years. Trust Waikato chief executive Bev Gatenby says the impetus behind increasing sponsorship is recognition of the... more...

Council indicated today that $230,000 of funding that had previously been directed to the Katolyst Group for the operation of its allied organisation Tourism Waikato would cease effective 1 July 2006. The intended change is a result of a review of Hamilton's events based tourism strategy and subsequent realignment of funds for regional economic development. Hamilton mayor, Michael Redman says ... more...

Autumn is the season of splendour at Taitua Arboretum as thousands of trees are ignited with colour. Arboretum manager Adrian Jepson says autumn presents an ideal opportunity to experience Taitua Arboretum at its full magnificence. "Thousands of trees are reaching their full autumn glory over the next couple of weeks so it's a superb time to visit the arboretum. Many of the trees in the arboretu... more...