August 8, 2012 10:59

Protesters out in force at pylons meeting

Up to 150 people held a protest outside the first of a series of consultation meetings over controversial plans to build a 30-mile long powerline across the Shropshire and Mid Wales countryside.

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Mike Worsfield, Eileen Bowen and Peter Roberts look at the proposals

Protesters gather at Llanymynech village hall to have their say about the pylons. At the front is Jonathan Wilkinson of Montgomeryshire Against Pylons.

Up to 150 people held a protest outside the first of a series of consultation meetings over controversial plans to build a 30-mile long powerline across the Shropshire and Mid Wales countryside.

People waving placards and armed with drums and horns gathered outside Llanymynech Village Hall, near Oswestry, last night to voice their disapproval at the National Grid plans, which would see a proposed electricity substation in Cefn Coch linked to the main network at Lower Frankton in north Shropshire by a series of pylons.

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Campaigners are planning further protests at more of National Grid’s meetings, starting with today’s drop-in session at Cwm Llanllugan Community Centre in Cefn Coch, from 2pm until 8pm.

Jonathan Wilkinson, chairman of Montgomeryshire Against Pylons, said: “We will not go away until National Grid takes its pylons plans out of Llanymynech, Montgomeryshire, Shropshire and Powys. Leave us alone to be a rural, idyllic area.”