Pylons win the day

One of the major opponents of Transpower's grid upgrade says he felt there was no choice but to sell the family farm of 90 years.

John and Shona Sexton's dairy farm will be replaced by a row of power pylons when Transpower moves in with the bulldozers.

"Our milking shed, implement shed, workshop and two houses are all in the 65 metre-wide easement area and will have to be demolished," Mr Sexton, chairman of the Auckland branch of Federated Farmers, said.

The Sextons sold their 162-hectare farm at Papakura to Transpower for an undisclosed sum and are leasing the property back until the end of the next dairy season when Transpower plans to move in.

"That won't need to happen until they start stringing the lines up, which is well after the middle of next year," Mr Sexton said.

The 66-year-old, whose family has farmed at Papakura for 90 years, felt they had no choice but to sell after a long drawn-out process. "They would have just compulsorily taken it," he said.

Transpower says it has compensated 75 per cent of the 318 landowners on the Auckland to Whakamaru route but remained tight-lipped on the details of what each landowner had received. Landowners were also not saying.

Mr Sexton, whose organisation is campaigning for Transpower to pay landowners with pylons an annual rent, said he'd like to see farmers get a lump sum and an annual payment to reflect ongoing costs.

Transpower refused to buy the Putaruru dairy farm where Peter Verderne is an equity partner. He and his family are moving out of their farmhouse before the lines arrive 100 metres from it.

The family fear such proximity could cause leukaemia.

"I'm not really happy about it at all," Mr Verderne said. "I have told my equity partners I am not going to stay in this house."

- © Fairfax NZ News