Land owners sought along route of pylons
A search has been launched to find owners of parcels of land on the potential corridor for pylons that could connect windfarms in Mid Wales to Britain's electricity network.
National Grid wants to discover who owns unregistered land in the path of the controversial pylons. And they have called on people living in Shropshire and Mid Wales to help them identify any owners to allow the project to proceed.
The power company wants to build a 400,000-volt electricity line across the Shropshire border to feed the electricity generated from wind farms in Mid Wales into the national power network. An electricity substation will be built at Cefn Coch, west of Welshpool, which will be linked to the main network at Lower Frankton, near Ellesmere.
Staff are currently carrying out surveys to identify how the connection should be built, including whether overground power lines and pylons or underground cables should be used. But there remains a number of plots of land that are unregistered and National Grid bosses say they need to find out who owns them so environmental, archaeological and engineering surveys can be carried out.
The plans have courted huge controversy, with thousands of people claiming the plans will ruin miles of countryside.
Jeremy Lee, lead project manager, said: "We appreciate people want to know as soon as possible where we propose to build the new connection and substation and these surveys are an important part of moving our proposals forward.
"We are grateful to the large number of landowners who have provided us with information and allowed us to go on to their land. However, we do still need to identify the owners of this unregistered land.
"We are currently undertaking surveys on land where we have been granted access by landowners on a voluntary basis."
Copies of the maps showing the unregistered land will be available on National Grid's project website www.national grid.com/midwalesconnection and at a number of libraries and civic locations throughout the area.
Anyone who has any information relating to the land can contact Bruton Knowles, Freepost, Land Rights BK on 0800 038 0660 or e-mail midwaleslrs @brutonknowles.co.uk
