How to live between the power lines

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 15

How to live between the power lines

A public meeting will be heid on July 27 to consider the proposal to set up the BurwoodMarshland power lines. Residents want to “discredit the case,” calling the N.Z.E. and M.E.D, report “one-eyed.” STAN DARLING talks to residents in Burnside who built their homes around existing power lines, who have become used to them, but who Sympathise with the Burwood-Marshland protesters. Photographs by CATHARINE HARRISON

Beneath the high tension power lines of Burnside, neighbourhood tension is low. When residents bought their houses or sections, a double line of power pylons was already there, marching across the countryside to the Papanui substation. They have got used to the pylons, but do not envy eastern suburbs residents who bought houses without any transmission line in sight. Having them come through where they had never been before would be a bit of a shock, one woman says. For Burnside, the power lines might as well be accepted - they are inescapable. Eastern Christchurch residents who would be most affected by pylons still hope for an escape. They are trying to convince the City Council not to be dazzled by statistics that show a greater security of power supply requires a new line of towers. They think they can show otherwise. In Burnside, Mrs Margaret Smart has a prize-winning front garden in Ambleside Drive. But her back garden has two elephant-like legs of a big power tower in it, rubbing shoulders with shrubbery and. the washing line.

The pylons were there first. Her "husband bought the

section later, and they built the house..

“It doesn't particularly worry me.” Mrs Smart says, about the power line. “I think you get used to it. When it rains, the line tends to make a crinkling noise. You can hear it sort of buzzing.”

She has no television reception problems, and has only one inside aerial on her set.

The garden at the 'back may be dominated by the tower legs, “but after all, you don't live in your back garden all the time.”. She has a 10-month-old •baby, though, “and I don't want neighbours to ring up when he’s older and say he's up the pylon!”

The towers are not the nicest looking things, but they are a good way of identifying where you live in the suburbs,” Mrs Smart says. "If people say where do

you live, we just say look out for the pylons.” She knows the power lines put some people off who are looking at houses in the neighbourhood. She has seen some drive past who never come back.

Mrs Anne Agnew, a near neighbour in Ambleside Drive, says: “You sort of forget they're there. They're ugly, I agree. I sympathise with people who haven’t had them."

Some crackle from the wires is heard on wet nights.

"It didn’t deter us from buying the house. We bought it because we liked it. and the neighbours had said we wouldn’t notice the lines after a while. And I think we got the house cheaper." Tourist buses are often taken past the lovely gardens down the street.

In Mooray Avenue, 81-year-old Mabie Cassidy lives

in Waimairi County pensioner flats that have pylons in their side yards. “They’re no’trouble at all.” Mrs Cassidy says. "I used to notice them when I first came here, but don’t now. But they make a devil of a noise when it’s blowing." Burnside has a double transmission line. The line from Bromley to a. Marshland substation would be a single one, with larger pylons.

New Zealand Electricity might- consider building “monotube” support structures along the new route if enough people want them, but it might be difficult to ensure a stable foundation for them. Monotubes would have a similar height to conventional. lattice-work towers, but they would taper to about 400 mm at the top. They would have crossarms. In seeking compensation, property owners . cannot claim damages against the erection of a pylon that is not on their land.

If loss or damage were proved, a claim could be made for the crossing of land by power lines. N.Z.E. says it is better to cross the eastern suburbs now, before much of the land is developed in housing. Then newcomers can judge for themselves whether they want to buy or build there.'