Hundreds due at Welshpool pylons exhibition
Hundreds of people are expected to attend an exhibition in Welshpool tomorrow to discuss plans which could see a power station and hundreds of pylons go up across the Shropshire and Mid Wales countryside.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend an exhibition in Welshpool tomorrow to discuss plans which could see a power station and hundreds of pylons go up across the Shropshire and Mid Wales countryside.
The National Grid exhibition will be at Welshpool Town Hall between 2pm and 8pm tomorrow. Bosses are holding consultation events across Shropshire and Mid Wales to discuss routes for a 400,000 volt cable linking windfarms in Powys to the grid.
The cable will go along 46-metre high pylons or be routed underground.
The plans include a power station being built in either Abermule, near Newtown, or Cefn Coch, near Llanfair Caereinion.
A total of 48 public exhibitions are being held up until May, which will also include one at The Monty Club in Newtown on April 27.
Councillor Alan Crowe from Welshpool urged as many people to attend as possible.
"These proposals may not affect Welshpool town directly but if this substation is built and pylons too it will affect the surrounding landscape, which could ultimately affect tourism in most of Montgomeryshire," he said.
"People need to come and find out what is going on and make their views know before its too late.
"I'm sure there are many other cheaper alternatives — one could be to give everyone a solar panel to put on their roof that would help the environment," he added.
Meanwhile, residents of two villages on the Shropshire/Powys border will get a chance to grill National Grid officials at a parish meeting next week.
The Pant and Llanymynech parish meeting is held every year to give villagers a chance to discuss matters of concern and hear what has been happening locally..
This year the organisers have arranged for representatives of the National Grid to be at the meeting.
Chairman of the Pant and Llanymynech parish council, Councillor Dilys Gaskill, said it was important that residents got the chance to have their say over the proposed power line.
"National Grid did site a mobile caravan on the car park at Llanymynech village hall at the start of the consultation," she said.
"There was a steady flow of people going to the exhibition there. But it is important that we have a meeting where National Grid representatives can listen to the local views and people get the chance to ask questions."
The meeting will be held in Llanymynech Village Hall on Wednesday, from 7.30pm.
By Anwen Evans and Sue Austin
