CAMPAIGNERS fear new Government proposals could make it easier for National Grid to secure planning permission for a corridor of pylons across the Somerset Levels.
As previously reported in the Weekly News, the National Grid has proposed the overhead pylons to take electricity from the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to an electricity substation in Avonmouth.
Current planning guidelines say overhead lines should avoid major areas of “highest amenity value”, but the Government now wants to relax these rules so that planning inspectors only have to “bear in mind” these issues of amenity.
Maggie Gregory, from Mark, who is a member of the Pylon-Moor-Pressure group, said she was disappointed by the proposals and appalled at any plans for overhead pylons.
She said: “It’s going to look alien and industrial in what is lovely, peaceful countryside and tourists would be less likely to come to the area.
“I think National Grid has got this wrong – we’ve always said there should be a sub-sea route.”
Dr Gregory also said the Government should have introduced financial incentives to encourage companies to bury cables rather than transport electricity via overhead pylons.
The National Grid says the £1.9billion cost of burying the cables under the Bristol Channel would be too much and instead wants to spend an estimated £656 million on pylons instead.
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