Protesters are demanding a public inquiry into plans to put up 12 miles of high voltage cable through Mid Wales.

CeltPower wants to install a 132kv cable, carried on 40ft double wooden poles, from Llandinam to Welshpool, via Dolfor, passing close to Kerry Ridgeway long distance path, through the Sawmills Valley and in front of Powis Castle. But members of the Stop The Overhead Pylons (STOP) group claim it will also affect many other sites.

These include sites of archaeological, historic and environmental interest and the region’s burgeoning tourism businesses, it said. 

Michele Lloyd, of Kerry, a member of the protest group, said they and other concerned members of the public, met CeltPower representatives this week to hear just how they would be affected. 

“Apparently CeltPower wants to ‘re-power’ and extend the Llandinam Wind Farm, which means it would knock down the current 103 turbines and replace them with 40 bigger ones producing up to 126 megawatts of electricity,” she said.

The company has asked Scottish Power to provide it with a connection to the National Grid and does not want to wait for the planned new 400kv cable connection hub at Carno scheduled to be ready in about seven years.

Mrs Lloyd said: “There are great swathes of land in Mid Wales earmarked for windfarm development and the decisions will ultimately be made in London, but we are writing to everyone we can to ask for a public inquiry on this issue because it is going to have such a permanent impact on the environment and all our lives.”

She said many people were also concerned about potential health issues. 

Glyn Davies, former Assembly Member and Tory prospective parliamentary candidate for Montgomeryshire, said the Welsh Assembly had created the problems Powys was facing over windfarms.

“I blame the Assembly Government for creating what is a totally shambolic position. In 2004, it adopted a policy which encourages windfarms to be built in an area, even though there is no means of transferring the power to the Grid.

“It’s only now this shambles is being addressed. Kerry is one of the villages expected to pay the price.”

By Deborah Knox