Alpaca farmer fears for closure amid pylons plans

Sarah McRow, who runs Brackenfield Alpacas, said her land, including the farmhouse, runs through the preferred route corridor

A Derbyshire alpaca farmer fears she might have to sell up to make way for electricity pylons.

The National Grid has proposed 37 miles (60km) of overhead lines through the Amber Valley to create electricity to power six million homes.

Sarah McRow, from Mount Pleasant Farm, which trades as Brackenfield Alpacas, near Alfreton, said her land runs through the preferred route corridor and claims it would destroy her business if approved.

The National Grid said the proposals were in the early stages.

The planned route is yet to be finalised, but the pylons could be placed on the 17-acre (seven-hectare) farm, which has 40 alpacas, it is feared.

Ms McRow said: "It was devastating when the letter from the National Grid came in May.

"We were just incredulous - how anyone can even consider putting pylons in such a beautiful valley like this?

"We could lose our home, our business, everything."

She added: "We will be living in limbo, not knowing what is going to happen, which, from our point of view, is actually quite devastating in itself."

Ms McRow said she was asking people to fill in objection forms

A campaign called Save Amber Valley Environment (SAVE) has been set up by residents.

Ms McRow said she was asking everyone who had come for a trek at Brackenfield Alpacas to fill in objection forms.

Amanda Paget, Amber Valley Borough councillor for Smalley, Shipley and Horsley Woodhouse, said she was working with campaign groups.

She added they were calling for the pylons to run down the M1, or to have the whole route underground, or put the scheme off-shore.

“My concerns are for the farmers whose land is going to be taken, impact to business - we have a lot of Airbnbs," she said.

“We’ve got microlight clubs around here and small aircrafts so recreation will be impacted.

“Then we have issues with wildlife and bio-diversity of the area.”

Leanne Evans, from National Grid, said a consultation was taking place and the organisation wanted "to get the feedback from the community and the landowners".

She said: "What we’ve gone out with is called a preferred route corridor so there is no route plotted through there at the moment.

“That will be the next stage, so the feedback will feed into that.

“We sent letters out to those communities and landowners.

"Part of that is so we can understand what that land is used for so we can do more environmental surveys."

She added: "Environment is really important to us. It does form an important part of our evaluation and assessment."

The consultation is open until 17 September.