Isle of Axholme pylons route should be reconsidered - council

The council said pylons would have a detrimental impact on the landscape

New power lines through the Isle of Axholme in North Lincolnshire would be a "jarring intrusion" on a beautiful landscape, councillors have said.

The new line is part of the National Grid's plans to upgrade infrastructure to support increased power generation by offshore windfarms.

North Lincolnshire Council said the route should either be changed or the cables should be buried.

A consultation on the plans by National Grid runs until the end of the month.

Its preferred route for the high-voltage electricity transmission line is from Cottingham, north of Hull, through the East Riding and south through the Isle of Axholme into Nottinghamshire.

It would take the pylons, up to 164ft (50m) high, through the Isle's historic strip-farming landscape, including up and over the highest parts of the area, making the pylons even more visible, according to the council.

Council leader Rob Waltham said it was committed to protecting the area's landscape.

'Not right for the Isle'

"These current proposals would be detrimental to that," he said.

"It is an area with genuine landscape value and already recognised as an Area of Special Historic Landscape Interest.

"The plans currently favoured are not right for the Isle and they need to be reconsidered."

His cabinet colleague David Rose said other routes should be considered, and otherwise underground cables should be used.

"The pylons would be a jarring intrusion, marring the unspoiled charm of this beautiful green space with an industrial corridor of steel."

National Grid said when it launched the consultation that it would "listen carefully" to the views of the local community.

It said the new infrastructure would connect green energy from areas around the Humber and in the North Sea to allow "clean electricity to power homes and businesses across the Midlands".

It said the project was still at an early stage of development.

According to the council, the Isle of Axholme is home to "many rare and valuable ecological and cultural landscapes".

They include England's largest areas of lowland raised mire, some of the country's most extensive surviving medieval strip field systems and the first landscapes in Britain to be drained by Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden in the 1620s.

The authority has applied to have the area officially designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.