Fibre cable in his front yard

The Waikato farmer whose contractors severed a fibre cable, cutting the internet to ‘‘whole towns’’ is upset he’s been made to look the scapegoat.

The Eureka property owner did not want to be named for fear of retribution from those affected by the outage.

But he said he had no idea the cable was ‘‘buried under the front section of my home’’.

‘‘It wasn’t on my property title, not on any LIM report, there were no warning signs posted and it was obviously not on the [Matamata-Piako district] council’s books either because they gave me permission to dig.’’

The cable, about 400mm600mm underground, was cut by a digger when excavation began on a new shed on the property on Monday last week.

It affected broadband connections for people in Waitoa, Manawaru, Morrinsville, Te Aroha and Motumaoho. Some mobile cell sites were also affected.

In particular, business in Morrinsville had to shut down after the cable was cut about

11.20am.

Chorus and Spark commented for earlier stories, reinforcing the message for people to check the website beforeudig.co.nz.

‘‘It annoys me that the blame has been laid with my contractors because they’ve cut the cable. It’s all very well for Spark and Chorus to say check before you dig but as far as I can see, no one knew the cable was there.’’

Business and community leaders in Morrinsville complained to Chorus about not having a backup system when the internet went down.

‘‘I totally understand where they’re coming from and the problem it’s caused. But I have to ask, why is there a cable, which I believe is of national significance, under the front yard of my property?

‘‘It’s not just supplying someone down the road with a connection, it’s supplying whole towns.’’

He said Chorus staff had come on to his property to fix the problem. Holes had been dug but left open with no safety fence.

He was also unsure who would have to pay for the repairs or for the cable, if it had to be moved.

He thought there should be more information shared on the location of telecommunication cables between Chorus and councils.

On Thursday morning, in a statement, Chorus confirmed the cable was laid in the 1980s when the land was a farm, not residential.

The cable was protected under the Telecommunications Act, with no specific easement required.

Chorus said it would not appear on property records but would be on the beforeyoudig website, which it encouraged people to use.

Chorus said the person who developed the land in 2005 should had made sure the cable was listed on property records, because the land use changed from rural to residential. Too many pills, costly counselling fees and stigma around mental illness – that’s the view of Millennials weighing in on the Government’s mental health inquiry.

Tales and tears were exchanged between young adults when more than 120 young people from around the Waikato turned up to a Mental Health & Addiction Ko¯ rero¯ run by Seed Waikato. The feedback will become a formal submission for the Government’s ongoing Mental Health Inquiry.

The inquiry was among Labour’s first-100-day campaign promises. It is due to report back to Health Minister David Clark