Operators of cafés, restaurants, pubs, clubs and caterers in Queenstown Lakes District will be among the first in the country to have the chance to use a new food safety management system when a Food Control Plan developed especially for their businesses is released next month, Lakes Environmental Environmental Health Principal Lee Webster said.

The useful life of Victoria Landfill will be extended by as much as 20% and issues of windblown rubbish will be reduced thanks to the introduction of a massive commercial rubbish compactor.

There are just three weeks remaining until the 2008 SKYCITY Queenstown Casino Community Trust funding round closes on Friday 1 August.

For the third year running, Queenstown has been voted third in Travel + Leisure Magazine's 2008 'World's Best' awards category for best city, Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific.

The subsiding rock above a section of the Shotover River poses danger and the area has been closed to the public until further notice.