A Merivale man's challenge to city council regarding the stringing of broadband cables from powerlines has gone unanswered at the Long Term Plan hearing.

Bill Richardson received no answer to his question as to why broadband cables in Merivale are being strung from existing power poles, instead of being buried as they are elsewhere in the city.

Bill Richardson says broadband cables should have gone underground.

He found black broadband fibre optic cables strung from power poles in his street when he returned from holiday last November.

When he built his Esk Street home in 1971, Bill was required to lay power lines underground because Tauranga City Council and Tauranga Electric Power Board claimed overhead lines in the street were to be replaced with underground cables.

However, the programme was stopped in around 1988 when the power board was sold off.

'When I added units on our property in 1992, I was still required to have the services on our property underground,” explains Bill.

'So there was still an expectation given by Council and Trust Power that the power poles would go.”

According to Bill, despite making contact with the authorities, no one at council answered any of his questions regarding the matter.

He wrote letters to council planners and the mayor in November, but it wasn't until February this year that numerous phone calls and emails were replied to and a meeting was set up with two council engineers.

'My letter in November was apparently intercepted by staff as the mayor's secretary had still not received it by the end of January,” says Bill.

The city engineers told him in February that the city's Infrastructure Development Code (IDC) only applied to new subdivisions. And that it didn't apply to the fibre optic installation because that falls under the Utilities Access Act 2010.

The act is intended to provide a national code of practice, and city engineers told Bill it allows for the installation of new services on old poles.

It also states that alternative designs may be submitted where the IDC minimum standards cannot be met.

Bill suggests council could have set conditions requiring the fibre optic cables to go underground, with the document stating alternative designs may be submitted where the minimum standards of the IDC cannot be met.

In others words, if the cables could be laid underground according to the IDC, then the alternative should not have been considered.

'It is my contention that the staff could have and should have insisted that the minimum standards of the IDC be met; that the new cables be placed underground,” says Bill.

'In allowing the fibre optic cable to be strung overhead on the old poles, they have failed the residents of the affected streets. Council staff have let down the council and ratepayers.

'Twenty three years is too long to wait for the expectations given to be met, and 44 years is grossly excessive. Council, as the manager of the street reserve and utility corridor, should take the initiative to require the power companies to honour those expectations.”

Bill wants under grounding of the power lines to be included in the 10 year plan. Council engineers told him that now the overhead fibre is a done deal the council may have to foot the costs if it decided to run the power underground in future.