Doug Sail News Today

Artist impressions of how the Countdown Supermarket at the new Showgrounds Hill development will look. The go-ahead for a retail development for Showgrounds Hill, the SC RSA buildings demolition, and the return of a beloved cat missing for two years, all made the headlines in December, as Doug Sail discovered in the final instalment of our series looking back at the year that was. The controversial Timaru retail development proposal at Showgrounds Hill was granted resource consent on December ...

Supplied The size of the hail that hit Timaru in a storm in November 2019, causing more than $170 million in damage. Multi-million dollar insurance payouts for fires and a storm were big news in The Timaru Herald during November, writes Doug Sail in an ongoing review of 2020. The insurance bill for Timaru’s 2019 hailstorm reached $170.98m in November making it New Zealand’s costliest weather event this century. The Insurance Council of New Zealand’s (ICNZ) figures released a few days be...

JOHN BISSET/Stuff Election night joy as Labours Jo Luxton, with husband Matt, and supporters celebrate her win in the Rangitata electorate. A general election and a devastating fire dominated October’s headlines, writes Doug Sail in the 10th of our series looking back on the year that was. Jo Luxton was feeling ‘‘pretty damn good,’’ after winning the Rangitata electorate for Labour in a surprise general election result on October 17. Luxton, who lost to Andrew Falloon in 2017 by a m...

The simple announcement of a show for children sparked two petitions, a series of articles and plenty of community comment that stretched nearly two months, Doug Sail discovered when he reviewed the news that made headlines in August 2020 as part of our series looking back on the year that was. A Timaru woman launched a petition calling on the town’s library to cancel an event which would have seen a drag queen duo address children on diversity. Taranaki-based drag queens Erika and Coco Fla...

BEJON HASWELL/Stuff Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon, pictured in Timaru on July 8, 2020, 12 days before his resignation over allegations of sending an indecent image. A scandal involving former Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon was a dominating feature of July’s news writes Doug Sail, as we continue our series looking back on the year that was. Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon resigned in disgrace in July after it was revealed he had sent an indecent image to a young woman. The 37-year-old National Party ...

John Bisset/Stuff The San Aotea II, pictured leaving Timarus port in early June, berthed back in Timaru in August 2020. A rescue and a retrieval featured prominently in June’s news coverage out of South Canterbury, writes Doug Sail in the sixth instalment of our series looking back on the year that was. Sanford deep-water fleet manager Darryn Shaw said the trip to the South Georgia Islands was necessary because of the impact of Covid-19, which had made it difficult to get people out of the F...

Bejon Haswell/Stuff/Stuff Motorists returned to Stafford Street, Timaru, on the first day of Level 2 restrictions on May 14, 2020. In our series looking back on the year that was, Doug Sail writes on finding a “new normal” during May in a Covid-19 affected world. As alert level 4 lockdown ended, and New Zealand entered the different rules and restrictions of alert level three and eventually level two, the chance came to assess the effects. One of the biggest impacts was to business operat...

Stafford Street, Timaru, is almost deserted on a Friday afternoon in April 2020 during lockdown. April was all about life in lockdown, but the rules didn’t sit well with everyone. In the fourth instalment in our series looking back on the year that was, Doug Sail remembers a month of long days – which for many were spent entirely at home. One in 10 people spoken to by police in early April were ignoring self-isolation rules in South Canterbury, Aoraki area commander Inspector Dave Gaskin r...

310120 News. Photo: Bejon Haswell/ Stuff A plantation fire between Mt Dobson and Burkes pass Smoke, shifts, smells and stranded kicked off the big news stories in February with the threat of Covid-19 looming writes Doug Sail in the second of our series looking back on the year that was. A fire fanned by wind and hot temperatures killed livestock, damaged several buildings and burned more than 100 hectares near Burkes Pass. ‘‘The fire spread quickly in low value forestry and tussock,’�...

John Bisset/Stuff One of the few big fireworks that worked during the Caroline Bay New Year display early on New Years Day 2020. The year began with a fizzer in South Canterbury but it was not Coronavirus/Covid-19 related writes Doug Sail in the first of our series looking back on the year that was – one in which our world changed dramatically. 2020 was just minutes old when thousands gathered at Caroline Bay in Timaru were unknowingly given an early insight of a year ahead which would be fu...