Farmers defiant in power line fight

Auckland and Waikato farmers are defiant over denying Transpower access to their properties this summer to upgrade high-voltage power lines.

But after a meeting in Wellington yesterday between senior Transpower staff and Federated Farmers delegates, they agreed to continue talking.

The national grid operator plans to begin a $10 million-upgrade of its Whakamaru-Otahuhu line in November. It says the work, which will take two summers to complete, is needed to increase power-carrying capacity.

But the plans prompted about 110 farmers from the Waikato and Auckland to threaten to deny Transpower access unless they were compensated.

Their stance had not changed after yesterday's meeting, although the farmers' representatives acknowledged Transpower's right to access for maintenance and repair work. Federated Farmers delegates will now meet their members in Auckland and Waikato to vote on what to do next.

Transpower spokesman Chris Roberts said he hoped for a settlement before November, but otherwise Transpower would do as much as it could with the land it could access.

"We will work with those landowners keen to co-operate, and leave those [who are not] till next summer.

"There will be no confrontations. Neither side wishes to see that."

He said there was little the company could do about compensation.

"They outlined they would like, over a 10-year period, a move to a system of compensation, which in our view would require a law change.

"It's a live issue and we recognise that, but we don't change the law so it's an issue that needs to extend beyond a discussion between Federated Farmers and Transpower."

Both sides pointed to a land access agreement as an indication of their commitment to better relations. The draft agreement looks at how Transpower contractors should behave when on private property and how to resolve disputes.

Transpower has no legal obligation to compensate landowners so long as there is no "injurious effect".

Yesterday's meeting came as a South Canterbury family was challenging in the Environment Court Transpower's right to access private property.

The Hale family, operating as Fernside Dairies, argue that Transpower's plan to double the number of conductor wires that run along their land will have an "injurious" effect on land value and farming. This could open the way for a compensation claim.