Proposed pylon routes leave no escape for Morrinsville

While the rest of the upper North Island debates which route Transpower's proposed 400kV transmission line will take, in Morrinsville there is no escape.

Transpower has proposed two routes for the line from the Whakamaru substation to Otahuhu, but they come together near Morrinsville, crossing farmland along the northeast boundary, leaving residents with no escape from the 70m-high pylons if the proposal goes ahead.

Farmers such as Mike Anderson, whose property the pylons will run across, are bitterly against it.

"We don't want them," he said at the Morrinsville sales yards yesterday. "Would you want them in your backyard?"

The pylons would devalue his land and ruin the views, said Mr Anderson.

"Some guy from Wellington who doesn't even know the area is going to deface it all."

Matamata Piako District Council Mayor Hugh Vercoe said the council was preparing a submission asking Transpower that the lines through Morrinsville be put underground.

The proposed pylons would also run across Mr Vercoe's property.

Transpower has said the line would require a corridor 65m to 100m wide, in which no development could take place.

The Morrinsville section is the closest to a town anywhere along the proposed 220km route.

"It's going to curtail the growth," Mr Vercoe said.

"To reduce that effect, we would like to see it undergrounded in our area."

Transpower's proposal has yet to go to the Electricity Commissioner for approval but if that is granted, it will seek consent from district and regional councils in the area.

Mr Vercoe said it had been decided that independent commissioners, working for all the councils involved, would be appointed to hear submissions on the proposal.