Rotten pole power lines 'pulling my house apart', Dunedin man says

Power authorities are being accused of putting finances ahead of public safety, after telling a north Dunedin man a rotten power pole, leaning dangerously, may not be replaced for up to a year.

However, Aurora says safety is the company's No 1 priority and certain safety precautions had to be followed.

Fea St resident and retired electrical engineer Jeff Gladden said arborists were removing trees on his Dalmore property this week, and he had asked the power authorities if they could temporarily drop the lines from the pole at the street to his house so the trees could be removed safely without damaging the lines.

However, he was told power authorities could not take the lines down because the pole at the street was rotting at the base and removing the lines might cause the pole to fall over, he said.

"It means that the lines from the pole to my house are helping to support the pole in position," Gladden said.

"The tension on those lines is so high now that you could actually play music on them - like a guitar."

He said the lines were also starting to pull on his house.

"It is pulling my house apart. Two doors don't fit properly any more because of the strain of the wires.

"When you look at the front of the place, you can actually see a bow in the house itself."

He claimed Aurora told him it could be three to four years before it could replace the pole.

He was worried the next big storm could bring his lines down and cause the pole to fall on to vehicles or pedestrians in Fea St.

"It's dangerous. It could very definitely do that.

"I've spoken to Aurora, trying to get them to do something, and they just absolutely refused.

"As far as they're concerned, it's not in their budget to do work, therefore they're not going to do anything."

He had contacted his lawyers about the damage it was doing to his house.

Aurora was not able to provide a response to the allegations before publication on Wednesday.

Aurora service delivery general manager Richard Starkey said poles in areas of north Dunedin were inspected earlier this year and a pole in Fea St was found to need replacing within the next 12 months.

That work was now being scheduled into Aurora's work programme.

"Due to the pole on Fea St recently being tagged for replacement, there is additional planning and alterations required so a safety disconnect can be completed without influencing the safety of the current structures.

"We appreciate this is inconvenient for the property owner, who wants to disconnect the line in order to trim trees on his property. However, we will never compromise on safety, which is our No1 priority.

"We understand the property owner enlisted the services of an arborist despite being advised last week that a safety disconnect could not be organised until a solution was sought.

"The customer contacted us yesterday [Monday] and we advised we will be in touch once we have identified an alternative solution to enable the tree trimming on his property."

Starkey said power lines were not known to be strong enough to alter the structure of a house because they were connected to houses via a barge board, which would usually disconnect from the house if under strain - even if attached to the house cladding.

"We will request our contractor to investigate this."

- This story was first published by the Otago Daily Times.