Compensation sought for power-line nuisance

Press, 13 December 1982, Page 14

Compensation sought for power-line nuisance

PA Auckland Mr Roger Tombleson, a radio engineer, believes that, from last Friday, the Waitemata Electric Power Board is responsible for a 5m strip running across his living room, through a . bedroom, and out on to< his back lawn. The strip is under a 110,000-volt power line strung across his property, midway between the Wairau Road sub-station and Albany on the northern outskirts of Auckland. Mr Tombleson wants compensation from the board, which Parliament on Thursday deemed to be the official owner of the line. He said he had been advised that the power authorities administered land 2.5 m each side of electric lines they owned. “As this line passes 70m diagonally across my pro-

perty and straight through my house. I will be pressing for compensation," Mr Tombleson said. The board's general manager, Mr J. R. Harrison, would not comment on the claim, whcih arose almost two years ago when Mr Tombleson queried ownership of the line. The trouble began last year when the Waitemata board raised the line’s voltage from 33.000, and Mr Tombleson found he could not continue his marine radio engineering business from home. “The noise was impossible,” he said. "The electrical interference from the higher voltage meant I could not test my radios. “It was so loud, there was no way I could call Auckland (marine) Radio. I was going out of business.” Mr Tombleson took his complaint to the High Court,

seeking an injunction against the board, but he lost. Mr Tombleson then sought help from Auckland University’s law department, unearthed a 1949 Court of Appeal precedent, and was preparing an appeal when the board submitted a bill to Parliament to legalise the matter. The Waitemata Electric Power Board (Albany-Glen-field-Wairau Valley Transmission Line) Validation Bill was passed on Thursday, after the board paid Mr Tombleson $4132 legal costs. “I am stuck with the power-line,” he said. "The television still jumps all over the place and I will have to install an aerial further down the street for my business. “But I believe I am entitled to compensation — it is like having that railroad running through the middle of the house."