A cross border campaign was launched today against controversial plans to build a £13 million overhead electricity line near Oswestry.

Campaigners in Shropshire have teamed up with protesters across the Welsh border to fight the proposed 13-mile overhead line which opponents claim will ruin the countryside around Oswestry.

And the Welsh campaigners today revealed they had approached the Prince of Wales in their battle against Scottish Power’s plans to run the overhead line from Legacy substation near Wrexham to Oswestry’s substation.

The company said if the line was not upgraded the current network would become inadequate.

It wants to construct the line to help supply 80,000 homes and businesses in the Wrexham, Shropshire and Powys area.

The overhead line would run past Pont y Blew, Chirk, Glyn Morlas, St Martins and Hindford, near Gobowen, as well as villages south of Wrexham. The proposal has been submitted to the Department of Energy and Climate Change for a decision but it has sparked outrage among villagers on both sides of the Shropshire border.

Today Sam Jerrett from the Pen y Lan Against Pylons group and St Martins resident Mac Ozanne who has led the Shropshire campaign said they had teamed up to fight the plan.

Mr Ozanne said: “Any voice which oppose this proposal is welcome. Councils on both sides of the border have objected to this. We will carry on fighting this and are now waiting for a decision.”