It won't be long before this country is widely regarded as a banana republic. Its bad enough that a single landowner can hold the power supply of our largest city to ransome, but now we have to put up with farmers whinging about compensation!? Surely the price they paid for their land would have reflected the fact that there were pylons on it. And if they already owned the land when the pylons were built, then they should have made a more compelling case for compensation at the time. Demanding money years after the event makes them no better than the likes of Hone Harawera, bleating about what society owes them, and not once pausing to think about the big picture.
Good on ya steve meier!listen to them crying about losing power..thats not your fault..they will try to shift blame on the farmers though..transpower are a joke
How many would like strangers wandering on their property and destroying trees. He did not ask for the power lines to be put there. It is purely a transpower problem, and they are just bullies.
The people who are calling Steve Meier are completely ignorant. He is a farmer which is probably one of the most stressful jobs one can have. Also HE did not put those pylons there. He tried to solve the problem by getting the people(Transpower)who DID put them there to fix the problem. He didn't put the pylons under the trees. I'm sure he doesn't have the time and the resources to fix the problem himself. All it would have taken was transpower to fix the problem 6 mouths ago and this whole inconvenience wouldn't of happened.
these farmers are paid to have the power lines/pillars on their property. question:- do the trees belong to transpower or the property owner? as for john banks does he actually think before he speaks!
I thought it was rediculous that John Banks mounted a personnal attack on Dr Strange from Transpower rather than confront the statement that he should be more supporitive and take Transpowers phone calls. John Banks not only had his facts wrong but proceeded to make things personnel, rather than stick to the facts (discussion) in hand. I beleive he has made a complete fool of himself in public by doing this.
why didn't Meier trim the trees himself if he was so aware of the problem, he looks like he could do with the fire wood...
The Farmer is an idiot, cut the power to his property and see how he feels about that. John Banks - a waste of space, where is the leadership that a Mayor of a Super City should provide - blame everyone else and play dumb when he knows exactly what is going on!
Transpower dropping the ball once again. What makes me laugh is that Auckland is suposed to be the massive super city and the way of the future that all the rest of the country is supposed to look up to and yet the rest of the country's power generation systems are keeping it from caos. little do people know there is only two major power generation sites in Auckland area and the rest of them (major) either on the Waikato river,new plymouth or transferred from stations in the south island. island
Once again, ill-informed commentary and ignorance rules the day. Firstly, Meier is trying to make this all about him - wanting TV crews present everytime Transpower try to do work - refusing entry at every possible opportunity (Easement or no easement).Secondly - Transpower are trying to upgrade infrastructure that is between 40 - 60 years old. Governments of all colours have neglected this infrastructure for decades.Thirdly - John Banks' rhetoric and hubris add nothing and solve nothing. He was a Cabinet Minister during the 90's - where was his concern then when he had an ability to influence Government spending priorities? So typical of John Banks to bury his head in the sand and then come out yelling and screaming in order to score political points...and you people wanted this guy as your Mayor?!?!Fourthly - For most of the nineties and naughties (i.e. 2001, 2002...) Transpower engaged in a softly softly approach vis-a-vis land access, so as to mitigate the worse effects on private property rights (under the old CEO who was suitably named Ralph Craven); but now you have a CEO who ain't gonna take that BS anymore.Fifthly - thinks about this: the current grid was effectively built between the 1950's and 1960's under the auspices of the Public Works Act, which meant that the Government could do ANYTHING it liked. So construction took - give or take - 15 to 20 years. Now, try doing that today, with dozens of different councils each with a different interpreation of existing use rights, pylon, transmission, etc and different rules about what an organisation like Transpower has to do in order to get consent...then add in factors like building consents, earthwork consents, private property access to name but a few and everyone seems to think that this can all be fixed overnight.As I said at the start, ill-informed commentary rules the day in internet land.