‘Help us fight National Grid’: Campaigners' plea for volunteers

A non-statutory consultation has just been launched into plans to bring undersea cables from wind farms off the Scottish coast onto the Lincolnshire coast near Anderby Creek and then trench them underground, with ancillary infrastructure.

As reported, National Grid says the cables are needed as the existing transmission network does not have enough capacity to securely and reliably transport the increasing amount of energy generated in Scotland, particularly from offshore wind. The links would power up to four million homes in the Midlands and the South of England.

The latest announcement follows early proposals for a new 87-mile line of more than 400 pylons through Lincolnshire from Grimsby to Walpole in Norfolk, for which separate statutory consultations will begin next year, although National Grid has not yet given specific dates.

However, No Pylons Lincolnshire opposes the pylons scheme, insisting that cables bringing wind-turbine-generated power to land from the North Sea stay on the sea bed until closer to where the power is needed.

The group says it supports an earlier National Grid proposal to build offshore infrastructure instead of pylons. It fully supports clean, green, renewable energy, but distributed in a clean, green and modern way by use of an integrated offshore network and not using Lincolnshire as a cheap route to other parts of the country, despoiling the landscape with ugly, outdated pylons or trenching a motorway through the best arable land in the country.

Chairman Andrew Roberts said: “Our message is clear and simple - keep all infrastructure out at sea for as long as possible, do not needlessly wreck our landscape and do not waste our fertile food-growing land. The Prime Minister has very recently gone on record to say everything must be done to safeguard our food security.

“Since we launched we have had fantastic support, with tremendous growth in our Facebook group and our committee. But we need to be ready now for the next, very important stages, which will be the non-statutory consultation into the impact on Lincolnshire of the cables from Scotland (Eastern Green Link 3 and 4 - EGL3 and EGL4) and the statutory consultation that National Grid has to conduct into its Grimsby to Walpole proposal.”

EGL3 and EGL4 non-statutory consultation has now started, and will run until June 17. National Grid has emphasised that this consultation is separate from the Grimsby to Walpole consultation. To have your say go to nationalgrid.com/egl3andegl4

No Pylons Lincolnshire is especially keen to hear from anyone at the far southern end of the pylons route nearer to Walpole.

Andrew said: “It must be realised that the Grimsby to Walpole pylons consultation which concluded last month (March), which so many people responded to, was non-statutory. We don't want anyone who responded to that thinking that they don’t now have to respond further.

“But it is vital that everyone has their say again for the more-important statutory consultation.”

Volunteers who want to help the campaign with leaflet distribution acting as No Pylons Lincolnshire ambassadors can contact Nicola at [email protected], including their name and contact details.

Anyone affected by these proposals can keep up to date by joining No Pylons Lincolnshire on Facebook.