Tai Taikato, chairman of Maungatapu Marae trustees, and Tauranga Environmental Protection Society secretary Antoon Moonen. Photo / George Novak
Tai Taikato, chairman of Maungatapu Marae trustees, and Tauranga Environmental Protection Society secretary Antoon Moonen. Photo / George Novak
Transpower has "no plan B" if it doesn't get consent for its $7 million plan to move power lines slung over houses and sportsfields in Rangataua.
There was standing room only yesterday as the Environment Court began hearing an appeal against the national grid operator's plan to move 3.3km ofthe 110kV transmission line that powers Mount Maunganui alongside State Highway 29 between Maungatapu and Matapihi.
The line would cross Rangataua Bay between power poles 35m and 45m high - dubbed "super poles" during a hearing last year by opponents concerned about spoiled views - either side of the Maungatapu Bridge, the site of a fatal crash on Saturday.
A graphic showing the old and proposed new path of the 110kV transmission 'A-line' that powers Mount Maunganui. Graphic / NZME
The Tauranga Environmental Protection Society has appealed against the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Tauranga City Council's decisions to grant Transpower resource consent for the realignment.
The councils' decisions were made through independent commissioners after a hearing in August.
Fourteen opposing submitters formed the society to fight that decision in court, hoping Transpower would consider other options for crossing the water such as undergrounding or attaching the line to a new "services" bridge.
The appeal was supported by trustees of Ngāti He's Maungatapu Marae, which would have the 35m pole nearby, and the Ngai Te Rangi Iwi Trust, which owns orchard land at Matapihi.
More than 50 people, including Maungatapu residents, kaumatua and marae representatives, crammed into a makeshift courtroom in the Papamoa Community Centre for the start of the hearing.
Transpower's lawyer, Andrew Beatson, said the realignment project was prompted by the deterioration of two poles in Te Ariki Park. One was at risk of coastal erosion.
He said Transpower saw an opportunity to fulfil a long-standing "undertaking" to Ngāti He to remove the power lines from the hapu's land to the roading corridor.
Lines hang over the hapu's Te Ariki Park as well as residential properties in Rangataua and orchards on the Matapihi side.
A mock-up of the 35m (left) and 45m poles Transpower proposes to install either side of the Maungatapu Bridge, as presented during a hearing in July. Graphic / Isthmus
Beatson said if the consents were not granted, Transpower would fix the deteriorating poles and leave the lines where they were for the foreseeable future.
"There is no Plan B - just a choice between this proposal ... and the status quo."
He said Transpower had been "surprised and confused" by marae trustees' "recent" opposition to the plan given their early support for it.
He said alternatives, including undergrounding, had been investigated and were too expensive, and may not even be able to get consent.
How the 35m pole at Maungatapu would look in one resident's view of Mauao, as presented at a hearing in July. Graphic / Isthmus
Under questioning by the society's lawyer, James Gardner-Hopkins, Transpower external affairs general manager Raewyn Moss acknowledged keeping the status quo would mean moving the eroding pole further back into Ngāti He land.
