Lincolnshire campaign group call on National Grid to rethink pylon plans
No Pylons Lincolnshire claim the energy transported will not benefit locals
A local campaign group are calling on the National Grid to rethink their plans for a pylon line through Lincolnshire.
The line would stretch 140km between Grimsby West and Walpole, Norfolk. A non-legally required public consultation was held last year on a proposed route corridor.
This indicated plans for the overhead pylons in North East Lincolnshire to head from National Grid’s existing Grimsby West substation, to west of Laceby, between Barnoldby le Beck and Waltham, and either side of Brigsley.
The National Grid say these new pylons are necessary to meet the countries growing energy demands.
Andrew Malkin from No Pylons Lincolnshire believes the energy transported will not benefit locals:
"We're asking for a pause, a rethink, and to do what almost every other European nation is doing. They're building offshore grids. They're bringing cables onshore on brownfield and industrial sites," said Mr Malkin.
"They're not damaging their countryside. They're not ruining the landscape.
"Keep them at sea for as long as possible and only bring the stuff ashore when it's closest to where the energy is actually needed.
"Hardly any of this new energy is needed in Lincolnshire, we have no massive combinations. We have no huge industry crying out for more power.
"In fact, we've got a very poor local network. So most of this will will bypass us. In any case, it's not going into the towns and villages. It will bypass us on its way to the south east," added Mr Malkin
No Pylons Lincolnshire wrote to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband two months ago objecting the scheme and have now received a response.
Mr Miliband apologised for the delay, and defended the planned new pylon lines on security and decarbonisation grounds. “Rolling out renewable power and building the electricity grid we need is the backbone of energy security for our country,” he says in the letter.
“We need to transform our electricity networks to connect clean, home-grown electricity generation to homes and businesses across the country.
“This is essential to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel markets, controlled by petrostates and dictators.”
He goes onto say: “The current network was mostly built in the middle of the last century, and we cannot afford to delay upgrading it any longer.”
His remarks echo the Prime Minister, who emphasised at Labour’s autumn conference the need for over ground pylons for cheaper electricity.
A spokesperson for National Grid said:
“The infrastructure we are proposing to build will help connect renewable energy to the grid, replacing expensive imported fossil fuels with cleaner and more affordable domestic sources of energy benefiting people in Lincolnshire and beyond.
“The government and our regulator Ofgem require us to assess our proposals against a range of factors, including value for money to bill payers and impact on the community and environment to ensure they are in line with current planning policy, our licence obligations, and clean energy targets.”