Shropshire Star

Demand to release Shropshire and Mid Wales pylon plan letters

Correspondence between National Grid and the Welsh Assembly over plans to create a £300 million network of pylons between Shropshire and Mid Wales should be made public, it has been claimed.

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Russell George, Montgomeryshire AM, said he is suspicious the Welsh Government is working with National Grid in support of the project, which would see a network of pylons built to carry power from windfarms in Mid Wales to the national supply in Shropshire.

Mr George said all correspondence between the two groups should be made available for the public to see, and said many people in his constituency shared his concerns.

But Edwina Hart, Welsh minister for economy, science and transport, would only confirm the two groups are in regular contact.

Mr George said: "There is great opposition to the Mid Wales connection project in Montgomeryshire.

"The connection project is just part of a larger energy scheme which will industrialise this region and blight the landscape.

"The proposals will decimate the Mid Wales countryside. The Welsh Government has confirmed to me that they have kept in regular contact with the National Grid throughout the duration of the Mid Wales connection project.

"The people of Montgomeryshire have a deep suspicion that the Welsh Government is working with National Grid in support of the project and I believe that the Government should be open and transparent and publish correspondence between themselves and the National Grid.

"There is also deep unhappiness in communities with the National Grid's consultation process."

But Mrs Hart would only say: "My officials have maintained regular contact with the National Grid throughout the duration of the Mid Wales connection project."

A fresh series of consultation events will begin next week into the power plans.

During the consultation, which starts in Whittington on Monday, National Grid will present detailed design plans for the proposed 30-mile power line from Cefn Coch, near Llanfair Caereinion, to Lower Frankton, near Oswestry.

Part of the line is set to be underground while other parts could be carried overhead on pylons.

The cable would take power generated from planned windfarms to the National Grid.

The pylon network would take more than two years to build and work could start by 2019.

The lines and a substation at Cefn Coch, near Llanfair Caereinion, are needed to carry electricity from the turbines to the grid, if planning permission for the windfarms is eventually given.

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