Lobby plan over electricity line

Councillors from a Shropshire borough are planning to lobby the Welsh Assembly Government over its refusal to allow a new electricity line to be sited alongside the A483/A5.

SP Manweb wants to construct a £6 million overhead wood pole electricity line between Oswestry substation and Legacy, near Wrexham, to increase supply.

At the moment all the electricity from Wrexham south to Oswestry, Welshpool and Newtown, comes from one double circuit py-lon line. SP Manweb wants to build a new line to ease pressure on the network.

It proposed running it along the A483/A5 corridor, but the Assembly rejected this route, opposing the use of bridges as conduits.

An alternative, cross-country route now being proposed by SP Manweb would see the 132kv line run past Pont y Blew, Chirk, Glyn Morlas, St Martins and Hindford, near Gobowen.

But councillors and objectors, particularly in the St Martins and Glyn Morlas areas, claim this would ruin beautiful countryside, and say the A483/A5 corridor is the most direct route.

Members of Oswestry Borough Council's Scrutiny Committee yesterday agre-ed to write to SP Manweb and the Welsh Assembly.

Councillor Stephen Charmley suggested they lobby the Assembly.

He said: "It will leave a scar on the countryside. The most direct route is the A483/A5 corridor."

He added: "When put to the Welsh Assembly, they may be shamed into a rethink. We have a duty to protect the countryside."