STOP FURTHER DESECRATION OF OUR BEAUTIFUL TAURANGA HARBOUR

Tauranga’s inner harbour is under threat from continued land development and other commercial activities. The seabed is being damaged, the water is polluted, and sea life disappearing.

From afar, our large tranquil harbour remains a place of beauty, but that is also about to change.

Tauranga City Council and BOP Regional Council have granted our state-owned enterprise TRANSPOWER consent to relocate a major power line, which we believe will further damage this beautiful scene. Transpower have two 110,000-volt lines running through Maungatapu which link the Hairini and Mt Maunganui substations. In an act Crown Law has confirmed was illegal, in 1959 Works installed the ‘A Line’ down the centre of Maungatapu Marae’s Te Ariki Park and across the harbour to Matapihi. Maungatapu Marae have been asking for it to be removed for 59 years.

In 1995 a second line was installed for increased capacity. This line travels alongside SH29A through Maungatapu before becoming underground 100 metres before the Maungatapu Bridge which it is attached to. Past the bridge on the Matapihi side of the harbour the cable becomes aerial again and continues on, this time over orchards. When consent was granted for the 2nd line, Transpower promised the Maungatapu Marae and local residents that the A-Line would also be removed from Te Ariki park and added to the B Line poles which were equipped for both lines, then across the harbour bridge etc. This agreement idea is set out clearly in the Tauranga Moana Management Plan.

Twenty years later and this has still not been done, despite continued calls from Maungatapu Marae. The A line is now collapsing. The first tower on Te Ariki park is badly cracked and has temporary bracing. The second tower is on a cliff overlooking Tauranga Harbour. The cliff has eroded badly through pressure and vibration of the buried dead-man (now exposed) and this tower is held upright by temporary guy wires anchored in the foreshore below. The tower in the harbour is suffering from significant corrosion and erosion and requires an extensive upgrade.

So, Transpower have found a new, cheaper way to get across the harbour. Not on the Maungatapu Bridge, not in ducts below the seabed, but between two super-poles, on the foreshore either side of the harbour beside the bridge. To span this huge distance and not touch the bridge the poles have to be as tall as possible. Transpower’s consent allows it to erect what equates to an 11-story pole with a 10-metre cross head on top on the foreshore beside Maungatapu Marae. On the Matapihi side of the harbour this great droop of cable will be held atop what equates to a 14-storey pole and 10-metre crosshead on the Matapihi foreshore.

This is not an accepted practice in urban areas. It is an adverse effect in an area designated as being of an ‘outstanding natural feature and landscape’. It contravenes the NZ Coastal Management Plan and the Resource Management Act. It is contrary to Transpower’s promise to NZ in its own booklets when it states at all new high voltage lines in urban areas will be underground. Transpower claim that this is not a new line, but maintenance of the old A Line some 300 metres away !!

Taikato Taikato, Chair of the Maungatapu Marae Trustees told the resource consent hearing, “We have fought for 60 years to have the A-Line removed, and you have promised to do that, but it has been when it suits you. You did not tell us you would take it from our park and erect it higher and longer right in our faces.”

The highway from Baypark to Maungatapu is a major entry point to Tauranga City. Thousands of our citizens travel through this route daily. People from Welcome Bay, Maungatapu, and the Avenues overlook or can see this area in the panorama of the harbour.

FURTHER DESECRATION OF OUR BEAUTIFUL HARBOUR MUST BE STOPPED NOW!

The Tauranga Environmental Protection Society Incorporated (TEPS) has lodged an appeal in the Environment Court to have the consent issued to Transpower overturned. Transpower does have options. These options are not as expensive as Transpower claim them to be. These other options would offer Transpower a more resilient network at this point, and when maintenance and operating costs are factored in, it has other options with a lower whole life cost.

TEPS has engaged a barrister who is a New Zealand expert in Resource Management law, and also electricity transmission legislation to present its case. It has also engaged a leading New Zealand landscape architect who has guided and provided expert evidence for much of New Zealand’s most significant infrastructure and landscapes.

Following earlier $17,000 legal costs TEPS requires another $60,000 to meet the costs of presenting its case to the Environment Court. To date, $39,000 has been raised by contributions from local residents and the Maungatapu Marae and Hapū. The Hearing will commence on 29th April and five days have been set aside for it at the Maungatapu Marae.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS CONSENT OVERTURNED, AND FOR TRANSPOWER TO USE MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY ACCEPTABLE OPTIONS IT HAS AVAILABLE TO IT, WE URGENTLY NEED YOUR HELP TO MEET OUR COSTS PLEASE. WE NEED TO RAISE $20,000 TO FINISH THE FIGHT.

Please help by making a donation which will enable us to meet the full costs of our appeal and the appearance of experts for the appeal.

If you want to support further, we also need your presence at the Court Hearing at Maungatapu Marae from Monday 29th April to Friday 3rd May. Come and support Our Community. Lunch and refreshments will be provided to attendees. WE NEED TAURANGA'S HELP & SUPPORT IN MAUNGATAPU.