Mid Wales pylon route announced
After months of delay and uncertainty, National Grid has announced the route for the controversial 30-mile high voltage power line linking windfarms in Mid Wales with the national power network in England.
After months of delay and uncertainty, National Grid has announced the route for the controversial 30-mile high voltage power line linking windfarms in Mid Wales with the national power network in England.
The 400,000-volt line will run from a substation to be built at Cefn Coch, near Llanfair Caereinion to Lower Frankton, near Oswestry, across some of the most beautiful countryside in Shropshire and Mid Wales.
Their preferred choice of 10 options could run both underground and on pylons and cost up to £562 million to construct by 2015.
The proposed route will go up past Meifod, and travel between Pant and Llansantffraid to the north and Four Crosses to the south. It will then go close to Knockin, Maesbury, and West Felton and directly through the village of Wootton before reaching its end point of Lower Frankton having travelled within just a few miles of Oswestry.
The final route would sit in a broader corridor identified by National Grid and includes a variation to one of the original routes to skirt the Vyrnwy Valley.
National Grid said that listening to local views has played an important part in the decision and that it has consulted extensively with local people and specialist bodies, weighed up issues such as landscape, flooding, heritage, ecology, tourism and transport.
But although the announcement is a relief to some, the decision has sparked a massive outcry from protesters with more than 300 campaigners gathering at Cefn Coch to warn National Grid bosses that the fight will now begin.
A second period of consultation will start shortly with a number of public information events planned including one in Shropshire at West Felton Village Hall on Wednesday, August 15.
The key now for farmers and landowners is to look carefully at the implications for their land and businesses both from the construction work and other losses associated with the pylons, including environmental. Taking professional advice before agreeing to anything will be essential.
Although there is talk of some cables going underground, at eight times the cost of overhead lines, this option will most likely only be used near to places with high landscape, cultural or historic value.
