Auckland woman's 'awful' two-year saga fighting Chorus over illegal telephone pole

Auckland woman Christine has been locked in a two-year battle with Chorus to remove a telephone pole erected illegally on her land. Photo / Michael Craig

After two years, dozens of futile emails and tedious hours on the phone, Christine is on the brink of resolving the "awful saga" of an illegal telephone pole on her property.

And all it took was one email from a newspaper.

Chorus assured the Herald on Sunday this week that a delivery specialist would travel to Christine's Auckland home tomorrow to "find a solution for the placement" of the unlawful pole.

However, Christine - who doesn't wanted her surname printed - says her extensive correspondence with the company over the last two years has been nothing like as positive.

It began in April 2017 when Chorus erected a telephone pole within the boundary of Christine's rental on Landscape Rd, Mt Eden with "no permission, absolutely nothing".

To make things worse, the technicians who installed it half-chopped down a hedge on her property and tore up her grass dragging the pole into place.

"No one knew anything about it. The tenants didn't know anything," Christine says.

"Here's this great big pole with umpteen wires going from it to all the other neighbours down the street.

"They've hacked away the hedge that's around the pole and now I'm getting a bit concerned because the hedge is grown up towards all the wires.

"In fact, I have met the worker who did the job and I think he felt uneasy about it so he didn't put the concrete around the pole at the time. He put the pole in but without finality."

After complaining to Chorus, the comany was quick to admit fault.

"You are correct about the location of the pole being incorrect and unlawful," a customer relations specialist wrote in an email dated May 16, 2017.

"I apologise for disputing that previously and I am sorry that we have acted in poor faith in this matter."

Fast-forward to June 1, 2018 and Chorus was still apologising for the placement of the pole while looking at "an alternate underground solution".

The Blockhouse Bay letterbox blocker. Photo / Michael Craig

Jump another year, to July 2019, when Christine contacted the Herald of Sunday, after reading about another illogical Chorus pole installation.

We contacted Chorus on Tuesday and the company's communications manager, Steve Pettigrew, said work on a solution would start on July 29.

"The challenge we had in resolving this earlier was the difficulty in finding a new location for the pole which was providing copper phone and broadband connections," Pettigrew said.

"Alternative placements would have resulted in 'aerial trespass' of our cables over other people's homes."

Because Christine agreed to move her landline services to fibre, Chorus said a "complex" underground wire solution would not be needed.

"We're working on the design for the fibre service now and after this is installed we'll be able to remove the existing pole," Pettigrew added.

While Christine is thrilled at the prospect of the pole finally being moved, she remains angry about being "ignored" for years.

"The pole spoils things, but the main point is it's illegal. They didn't think - no commonsense whatsoever. They just barge onto your property, dig a hole and plonk a pole in.

"It's not flash but it's a nice house. I understand the issue, but Chorus have done nothing about it, and that's what gets me.

"They think I'm just some little old lady who's going to sit there and do nothing. It's been an awful saga."

On July 15, Chorus had to shift a pole put up immediately behind Blockhouse Bay resident Kent Millar's letterbox after the case was reported by the Herald.

The pole - a replacement for an old phone pole - blocked Millar from getting his mail, and Chorus admitted "we got it wrong and we'll make it right".