By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
KEYSBOROUGH residents have been told the state’s energy ombudsman can’t stop high-voltage overhead powerlines being installed outside their homes.
Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria this month mounted an investigation into a resident’s complaint against 66,000-volt overhead lines being installed metres from their home without warning.
Elizabeth Domanski was one of 30 petitioners who called for a halt to the works.
She was told the investigation was still open but that power company United Energy had “apparently fulfilled its obligations”.
“They can’t stop the works,” Ms Domanski said.
“There isn’t any regulations to protect us from having these wires right next to us.”
She and other residents along a 300-metre section of Cheltenham Road had been accustomed to powerlines being buried outside their premises.
United Energy has said that burying the powerlines, required to supply Keysborough’s new housing and industrial estates, would be “impracticable” because of physical space constraints, proximity to gas and water assets and excessive cost.
The ombudsman declined to comment.
– Cam Lucadou-Wells
