Opposition firm as giant pylons loom over homes

Ros Sellers says Te Miro residents were the last to sign the papers. Photo / Alan Gibson

Ros Sellers says she's enjoying what is left of the view from her Te Miro home before it goes when a 66m pylon is built near her driveway.

Work has already started on foundations for the pylon, one of 426 in the North Island power grid upgrade that, when completed, will be capable of carrying 400,000 volts of electricity from Whakamaru, near Taupo, into Auckland.

When the job is finished, wires from the pylon will hang directly over Ms Sellers' driveway.

"We can see pylons in the north and to the south, so the giants are closing in, they're coming," she said.

Ms Sellers has received an undisclosed sum in compensation for the tower but, like her neighbours, she's not happy, having opposed the idea of the upgrade since its inception.

"Our little community, I think, was the last to sign the documents. We left it to the last point we could.

"We've all had to sign and we have all been compensated so it's a done deal, but it still angers me immensely," she said.

"How do you compensate for the unknown health issues pending and the visual impact? For me, there's never enough money to compensate for it," Ms Sellers said.

Transpower spokeswoman Adele Fitzpatrick said that while construction activities had slowed over the winter months, 67 per cent of the tower foundations were done, 53 per cent of the towers were complete and 82 per cent of the access roads to the towers were finished.

She said the project needed to be commissioned before winter 2013, and stringing or hanging of the wires would start next month, continuing through to next year.

Ms Fitzpatrick said Transpower had spent $216 million buying 94 properties for the project, including dairy farms, grazing land and lifestyle blocks through Waikato and the southeastern outskirts of Auckland.

Transpower had developed "extremely good working relationships with many landowners" and all easements across properties had been negotiated.

May 2012 is the target completion date, although this could extend by four months to allow for wet weather.

Mike Carter, Transpower's general manager of grid projects, said progress on the lines for the North Island Grid Upgrade Project was going extremely well.

New Era Energy vice-chairman Bob McQueen was part of a group that called for a judicial review of the Electricity Commission's decision to approve the upgrade.

The group also participated in the Resource Management Act board of inquiry in Hamilton in 2008, where it opposed the project without success.

"We put our faith in the process and engaged in both of these channels and we were pretty devastated when we came up with zero for two for both of those," said Mr McQueen.

"I am still convinced it was the wrong decision to make, and remain convinced that's the case."