Lincolnshire 'being told to put up with pylons'

Pylons form part of plans to decarbonise the electricity grid

People in Lincolnshire are being told to "simply put up with" new pylons, it has been claimed.

Martin Hill, leader of Lincolnshire County Council, was responding to a speech by the prime minister in which he said the country had to accept "trade-offs", including pylons to carry green energy.

Under plans announced during the previous Conservative government, National Grid would build a new line of pylons through a stretch of Lincolnshire.

National Grid said it considers "all technology options" but must offer value for money while meeting green energy targets.

Councillor Martin Hill says cables should be put underground

National Grid wants a new line of pylons to transport electricity 87 miles (140km) between Grimsby and Walpole in Norfolk.

It is part of plans to transport power from offshore wind farms around the UK.

The pylons would cost about £1bn compared with £6.5bn to put them underground and £4.3bn for an offshore subsea cable, according to National Grid.

In a statement, Hill agreed emissions needed to be cut but said "pylons are not the only option" and risked damaging Lincolnshire's landscape and farming industry.

“National Grid already plan to bring power generated in Scotland down to Lincolnshire on the seabed," he said.

"This power isn’t to meet the county’s needs, it’s needed further south, so why not continue seabed cables further down the coast?"

Hill also said that the new government's target of decarbonising the electricity grid by 2030 - five years earlier than the previous government - was "ridiculous".

'Value for money'

In a speech at the Labour Party conference last week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "If we want cheaper electricity, we need new pylons overground otherwise the burden on taxpayers is too much."

In a statement, National Grid said: "When we are developing new electricity infrastructure projects, we consider all technology options, and share them at public consultation.

"The government and our regulator Ofgem require us to assess our proposals against a range of factors, including value for money to bill payers and impact on the community and environment to ensure they are in line with current planning policy, our licence obligations, and net zero targets.”

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said without pylons Government would "never deliver clean power for the British people".

It added: “It is important we take people with us and are considering ways to ensure communities who live near clean energy infrastructure can see the benefits of this.

"We are currently considering ways that ensure communities benefit from living near new onshore electricity transmission infrastructure."

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