Going postal over the pylon route

Pupils at Hunua School are among hundreds about to learn whether they will be directly affected by the Transpower project. Picture / Paul Estcourt

Letters telling residents where a planned power line will cross their property are being mailed today - with an offer to begin talks about compensation.

And last night, mayors of regions affected by the 400kV, 190km line stretching from Otahuhu in South Auckland to Whakamaru in the Waikato were meeting lines company Transpower for a briefing. (See link below for a map of the likely and possible routes.)

A residents' group, Underground in Manukau, is advising landowners not to discuss compensation.

"We're saying don't commit yourself until the Electricity Commission says this is the only answer for Auckland," said spokesman Jon Addison.

The Herald understands letters will go out to 1100 landowners confirming the western route as the preferred option and discarding the eastern route.

That means about 600 landowners on the western route will get the bad news while about 500 to the east will breathe sighs of relief.

Transpower spokesman Chris Roberts said of the initial 600 landowners affected, fewer than 350 would eventually be compensated.

Some landowners would find the final route meant the line did not cross their land.

The letters would spell out how their homes were situated in relation to the 500m-wide pathway within which the 67m pylons would be built.

"We are entering a new phase, seeking to negotiate with individual landowners for the property rights we will need for the new line," he said.

But Mr Addison said while landowners should wait until the independent Electricity Commissioner delivered its verdict on the plan - at least a year away - he realised some would go ahead anyway.

"Property values on this part of the route are so high that the compensation will be a lot of money and some people will be tempted."

Mr Roberts said compensation talks could begin once a landowner and Transpower agreed on an independent valuer. The company had been given "every encouragement" to get on with negotiations by the Government and by the Electricity Commission, he said.

Mr Addison said property values in Manukau, which was expected to accommodate about 7 per cent of the line, had already dropped since the proposed line was announced in October last year.

Underground in Manukau had said Transpower's compensation figure of $97 million for the route was woefully inadequate, he said.

The 62 properties in Manukau alone affected by the new line had a 2002 value of $61.6 million but the group could show that had risen to $126 million, he said.

Independent Electricity Commission Roy Hemmingway will rule next July on whether the line should go ahead.

The plan then has to gain approval under the Resource Management Act.