Government is treating Lincolnshire as "power motorway" says Louth MP

A Lincolnshire MP says the Government are treating the county as a "power motorway".

The National Grid have revealed plans for a 140km pylon line running from Grimsby to Norfolk, which would transport offshore wind energy to the South.

"There are other alternatives that National Grid should be looking it, for example, setting up a second grid out at sea so the power goes online where it's needed," said Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins, MP for Louth and Horncastle.

"Instead of viewing Lincolnshire as some sort of power motorway to get power from the North of England and Scotland down to London."

"That is wrong and National Grid and this Government need to be more imaginative about how they creative power but also how they transport it around our country."

There's also fourteen solar farms deemed Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP), due to their size, at different stages of planning across Lincolnshire.

Unlike normal planning applications, the final decision on NSIP's is made by Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband."

"My question to Ed Miliband and 'City Steve Reid' is why aren't you putting these solar panels on rooftops," said Victoria Atkins MP.

"Why aren't you putting them in Urban areas closer to the people who need to consume these vast quantities of energy."

"Lincolnshire is described often as the bread basket of the UK, we grow the wheat that puts the bread on our tables."

"That prime agricultural land should be used to grow food, not to put solar panels on," added Victoria Atkins MP.

In reply to a recent letter from LAND (Lincolnshire Against Needless Destruction), objecting the pylon line and solar farms, Ed Miliband said "Rolling out renewable power and building the electricity grid we need is the backbone of energy security for our country."

"The Government continues to believe the deployment of solar farms does not pose a threat to food security," he added.