Campaigners call for assessment of Lincs electricity plans
© Tim Scrivener Campaign group No Pylons Lincolnshire is urging the government to carry out a cumulative impact assessment of the “Great Grid Upgrade” in the area, which it says threatens more than 10,000ha of prime farmland.
National Grid plans to construct 87 miles of power cables through Lincolnshire have attracted interest from a range of private projects, including solar farms, battery storage and combined cycle power stations.
See more: Lincs farmland under threat from massive pylons project
No Pylons Lincolnshire estimates that 10,100ha of Grade 1 land are set to be gobbled up by the solar projects alone, with more at risk from other connected projects.
As a result, the group is now calling for all of the combined proposals to be “properly, fully and comprehensively analysed as one”, to assess the impact on food production, among other things.
Andrew Malkin, founder of No Pylons Lincolnshire, said: “You can’t pick these projects off one at a time, because the total impact will be so much greater.
“The impact on prime food-growing land is important.
“But there are other considerations too, like the environment, biodiversity and damage to the landscape.”
Mr Malkin also questioned the ambition to turn Lincolnshire into a “super highway for transmitting energy” when the power is not actually needed in Lincolnshire itself, but the South East.
“This is valuable Grade 1 land,” he said.
“They shouldn’t be impacting food security in the name of energy security when there’s no need for it.
“If they leave the cables under the sea and take them down to Tilbury, we’ll have the energy security they seek and we’ll still have the food security that Lincolnshire provides.”
The call from No Pylons Lincolnshire comes just days after energy secretary Ed Miliband was quoted in The Times saying he would be “happy to live next to an electricity pylon”.
“I don’t believe him,” said Mr Malkin.
“Who would actually say I’d be happy to live next to a pylon?
“The emphasis on the word happy. We’ve not met anybody who would admit to being happy to live next to pylons.”