Power to the people
A power company has agreed to change its plans and work with South Waikato community groups to preserve the Pokaiwhenua Stream and Duxfield Reserve after locals launched a petition asking the company to place power lines underground.
Powerco said it had reached a compromise with Putā ruru locals and would partner with the Pokaiwhenua Catchment Group to restore and enhance the stream and its surrounds and would also build six large power poles parallel with the reserve instead of through it.
Putā ruru locals and petition organisers Lesley Fitzgerald, Jenny Oliphant and Carol Edmeades said they would still prefer the lines to be built underground but said they had ‘‘gained some good outcomes’’ as a result of public pressure.
The petition – No mega power poles for Arapuni Rd, Putā ruru – gained 1780 signatures and asked Powerco to rethink plans to build a series of 20m-high power poles along Arapuni Rd and across the Pokaiwhenua Stream and Duxfield Reserve.
Powerco’s $43 million project to build a new electricity connection between the national grid and the South Waikato is under way and will provide a second connection for 11,500 residential and commercial power users in the region who rely on a single Transpower transmission line at Karā piro for their electricity.
‘‘We have gained good concessions but not all we set out to achieve in our fight against Powerco’s power poles,’’ Fitzgerald said. Negotiations on an alternative route failed, she said, but the South Waikato District Council and Powerco had been ‘‘forced to listen to the community and people who supported the petition’’.
‘‘ Our community came together to be heard,’’ Fitzgerald said.