Pylon protesters urged to attend objection letter courses
Wednesday 4th May 2011, 12:25PM BST.
Campaigners fighting plans that could see hundreds of pylons built across the Shropshire and Mid Wales countryside are being urged to attend objection letter writing workshops.
Events will be held at Kerry village hall, near Newtown, on Saturday and again on May 14, from 12 to 4pm, in an attempt to get as many people as possible to have their say on the plans.
It comes weeks after National Grid announced it would hold consultation events to find a potential route for a 400,000 volt cable, using either 46-metre high pylons or by routing the wires underground. The cable will connect windfarms in Mid Wales to the National Grid.
Plans also include a substation being built in either Abermule, near Newtown, or Cefn Coch, near Llanfair Caereinion.
Scottish Power is also holding consultation events because it intends to connect at least 10 planned windfarms to the proposed substation.
Michele Lloyd, a campaigner from Kerry, said she hoped as many people as possible would attend the workshops.
She said: “The feedback forms only give people the choice to decide on one site/route or the other and we don’t think it is fair because it’s trying to divide the communities.
“It is very important that people return these feedback forms, say no to everything and attach a letter giving their reasons.”
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Please please do not put NIMBY excuses in these letters. They will not wash with uk govt officials or national grid. stick to the facts and please try to get as many of the cables buried near dwellings and places of interest.
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Although Sam has a point all the views will have a nimby element . The majority should be buried no excuses .
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I beg to differ – there is a non-nimby side to this. This project is a criminal waste of resources!
The grid connection is not needed. It would be constructed as a legal requirement by National Grid to transport electricity produced by the planned wind farm.
A wind farm which would be built almost as far as possible from an existing grid connection! National Grid confirm that only Lands End is further from the existing network. RenewableUK (“The voice of wind and marine energy”) say that the first thing they look for when planning a wind farm is a nearby grid connection.
So who thought it would be a good idea to put it where millions of pounds will need to be spent constructing a major new grid extension? Paid for by us all in the form of increased electricity bills!
This supposed to reduce carbon output. How much carbon do you think will be emitted providing the thousands of tons of aluminium, steel and concrete needed to construct 20 acres of substation and 50km of pylons?
There are plenty of windy hills in North Wales, South Wales and England, which are already criss-crossed by the Grid. Or better still build the turbines off-shore, where the wind is more reliable. This makes no environmental or economic sense!
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I agree with Sam, stick to material planning considerations not “it will affect the value of my house”.
Also, I’d like to say to Andrew that burying the cable underground might be good for the landscape but there may be reasons why this couldn’t happen either. In order to route it underground a strip at least 30 metres wide the lenghth of the route would have to be taken out to use as a working area and could lead to disruption to wildlife and groundwater, loss of business for farmers etc.
I guess it’s a balancing act, I’m glad I’m not trying to plan something like this.
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Putting logical reasons in the NG pylon form is a good idea, unless you live under one.
There is actually only one glaringly obvious logical route option, and that is the so called purple south route from Walford to Abermule.
It is shorter, cheaper, more direct, affects fewer businesses, fewer houses, fewer schools, has less horrendous direction changes,mostly out of the flood plain, Would be easier to underground and it shares the total project blight on a 50/50 basis with England and Wales, quite important should there be any future Welsh nationalist anger !
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The simplest solution is not to build the additional windfarms in the first place. Then this paraphernalia will not be necessary.
Specifically concerning Purple South, however, this would have a significant impact on the Shropshire Hills AONB. As the AONB Partnership itself says in its observations to National Grid:
“… Purple South would have [a] significant impact on the Shropshire Hills AONB. Though this route lies outside the AONB boundary, its proximity means that the impact within the AONB would be highly significant. This north-western part of the AONB is a sensitive receptor in terms of visual impact, including the settlements around Hope, and well used visitor locations including Stapeley Hill and the Stiperstones National Nature Reserve. Power lines through the Rea Valley just outside the boundary would have a significant impact on the landscape character of this fringe of the AONB.”
And as for Welsh nationalist anger … if only! It amazes me how the party that calls itself the national party of Wales is just meekly going along with all this desecration.
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