Pylon opposition groups put boot in

Arapuni dairy farmers Julie and Barry Burwell say they would never have let Transpower on to their property. Picture / Amos Chapple

Farmers and associated lobby groups have blasted Transpower for the way it has handled the pylon project since it was first aired in 2003.

"This is a humiliating slap in the face for Transpower," said Bob McQueen, deputy chairman of the Waikato-based opposition group New Era Energy.

"Transpower has spent tens of millions of dollars developing this flawed proposal and was likely to waste more than a billion dollars building this unneeded white elephant using costly but outdated Third World technology."

His colleague Christina Baldwin called for the resignation of the grid operator's chief executive, Dr Ralph Craven, as well as its entire board.

She said Transpower had shown incompetence, arrogance and a heavy-handed attitude in what had been a debacle from start to finish.

"The Electricity Commission is saying the Transpower proposal is uneconomic.

"The real answer lies in building plants nearer to Auckland. It's a generation problem, not a transmission problem."

Mrs Baldwin refused to accept that new lines would be inevitable.

"What this does do is give us time. If a better solution is found in the meantime then we may not ever need them.

"There could be better technology available, demand could taper off - people are becoming more conscious of the need to save more energy."

Arapuni dairy farmer Julie Burwell said her family would never have given access to Transpower's lines anyway.

Of most concern to her was the size of the pylons and their impact on the health of her family and stock.

Constructing pylons on her farm would have wiped out a large number of established trees and their visual impact was reprehensible, she said.

"We felt Transpower's proposal was the most expensive option to force on taxpayers. There would have been no generation to feed the lines. It simply didn't make any sense.

"We already have gas lines coming through our property and two sets of transmission lines, and we can see why they're needed. But these lines never made any sense. There's no extra power in Whakamaru."

Mrs Baldwin agreed. She said "gold-plated lines" were hardly useful when lakes in the South Island were dry and there was no power generation to feed through to Auckland.