Contact Energy has been buying up land in the Franklin District as part of its strategy to build New Zealand’s largest windfarm on the coast from Port Waikato to Raglan.

The most controversial part of the windfarm plan is the pylons and power lines, which will cross 23 kilometres of farmland to connect it with the national grid - the pylons that average 40-metre high will cross 15 farms.

Many of the owners of these farms have serious concerns about this – a Contact Energy report states that some landowners had expressed concern about the transmission line crossing their property.

But Contact, which is majority owned by Australian-owned Origin, has quietened at least two landowners by buying their affected properties.

In August last year Contact purchased Donald Cameron’s 88-hectare farm was bought for $2.8 million – the property had a value of $2.35million. This purchase was approved by the Overseas Investment Service.

NBR understands that Contact has just bought two further properties owned by Bramwell Farms, which is turn is owned by lawyer Graham Harford.

In April last year Mr Harford had jointly chaired a meeting between the concerned farmers and the power company and it is understood was worried about the proposal.

Neither he nor Contact would confirm this sale although a Contact spokesman has said it has bought three properties that will be affected by the proposed transmission corridor.

The spokesman directed NBR to the company’s policy on purchasing land under “special circumstances”.

The document said the company was willing to purchase land where a large part of the property was needed for specific transmission assets, when the visual pollution of the pylons was such that this was the most appropriate solution or when it had strategic benefits for future operational flexibility.

The windfarm, if it gets the go-ahead at a board-of-inquiry hearing at the end of April, will be able to produce 540 mega watts of energy and will have 150 turbines when completed.