Deadline looms over Fen pylons

South Holland District Council is the latest authority to announce its opposition to the planned pylon march ahead of the end of the initial consultation process on Wednesday, March 13.

National Grid’s plan for the connection from Grimsby to Walpole in Norfolk is set to go right through South Holland.
The issue was raised at South Holland District Council by Coun Rob Gibson who said: “It’s 87 miles of 50m-high pylons on our skyline and arable land, some of which is the best in the country.
Coun Henry Bingham, the portfolio holder for assets and strategic planning said it would be ‘multiple years’ before it was decided by a central government planning officer and not any local authority.
“Our residents, land owners and businesses are now grappling with the unwanted intrusion of the national grid proposal to run 400kv overhead transmission from Grimsby to Walpole,” he said.
“This will effect the whole of the South and East Lincolnshire Partnership in the area and, in my view, have an unacceptable impact on the landscape
“Communities and residents may well be subjected to an industrial landscape not of their choice or making.
“Its perverse a scheme that aims to deliver the government’s net zero targets could itself harm the environment on a permanent basis.
“Mitigating the visual impacts of pylons on the flat Fenland landscape will be practically impossible.
“We fully recognise the need to have energy security and the need to distribute it to where its needed, but the cost of doing so should not come at the burden on host communities or be detrimental to the local landscape. We encourage residents to complete the consultation and engage the process throughout. National grid should reconsider their proposal altogether”
Meanwhile the campaign group formed to oppose the route, No Pylons Lincolnshire, claimed the Weston Marsh substation would need to be 6,259 acres.
It could be linked with a proposed wind farm that’s also consulted on having a substation in the same location.
Cat Makinson, of No Pylons Lincolnshire, said: “We are all for green energy and fully supportive of net zero goals; but that which can be produced and carried offshore is by far the best solution to the energy and farming crisis.
“We are calling for joined-up decision making that properly balances the needs of agriculture and energy and is respectful of communities in Lincolnshire.
“We aim to persuade Government to take a closer look at the offshore alternatives.”