SHIFTING POLES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 18, 23 January 1933, Page 3

SHIFTING POLES.

WHO WILL MEET THE COST? POWER BOARD NOT LIABLE. In some of the outer suburbs where street levels are often only approximately what they will be when the district is thoroughly developed, the question crops up from time to time who will pay for removing the electric current poles? It became quite an important matter when the road from New Lynn to Titirangi was graded and concreted. Many of the power poles had to be shifted to agree with the new line of levels. The Waitemata County Council thought the Waitemata Electric Power Board should bear at least part of the cost of the work, but the board declined, and after prolonged discussions the matter finally went to the Court of Appeal, which decided-that the whole of the cost of removing the poles must be borne by the local body. The matter cropped up again when the levels of a road in the district of the Glen Eden Town Board were altered, and the lowering of the footpath necessitated the shifting of several poles, the cost of the work of sinking new holes being £21. At this morning's meeting of the Power Board the manager, Mr. A. Main, reported that l if the board wished to contribute to the work, the only way would be out of unauthorised expenditure. Mr. R. Wright said the poles had been put down originally under the sanction of the local body, which indicated the levels, and after the express decision of the Court of Appeal in the case in which the Waitemata County Council was concerned, it would be illegal for the Power Board to bear the cost of shifting the poles at Glen Eden. The work was clearly the duty of the local body.

Other members agreed that the board could not even contribute to the cost of work in such cases where the road levels were altered by the local body after the poles had been erected. The board decided to take no action in the matter, which means that the £21 will have to be paid by the Glen Eden Town Board.