Lincolnshire County Council considers legal action over pylon plan

In January, National Grid dropped the bombshell of their plan to string up 420 pylons across an 87-mile stretch from North East Lincolnshire all the way to Norfolk. But it’s not going down well locally, with both the council and residents up in arms.

Dubbed The Great Grid Upgrade, it’s pegged as a major revamp, crucial for hooking up new eco-friendly power sources. Since January 18, they’ve been out and about trying to win hearts and minds.

But the council’s not buying it. They reckon the consultation’s been a bit one-sided, not giving enough airtime to pricier but less intrusive options like going under the sea or underground.

Today (Tuesday), the council’s big guns didn’t hold back, slamming the proposal for threatening Lincolnshire’s green and pleasant lands, not to mention the potential hit to farming and our holiday spots.

Councillor Colin Davie (Conservative), portfolio holder for Economic Development, Environment and Planning, said: “I’ve taken the view that if you are going to have a meaningful consultation exercise, you’ve got to give people real options that they can choose.

“The fact that National Grid has discounted two of the options, and the only option on the table is the pylon proposal — I don’t think that’s proper consultation.

“I think we’re going to look at it legally to see if there’s a challenge to the consultation process.”

National Grid said that the pylon plan under consideration is expected to cost £1.07 billion, while the alternative underground and subsea options are projected to cost £6.54 billion and £4.39 billion, respectively.

Nevertheless, Coun Davie noted the company also introduced other proposals, including a subsea cable from Scotland to Lincolnshire. This initiative aims to transport excess onshore wind energy to the national grid by routing it along the seabed and then bringing it onshore to their substations in Alford, which are included in the pylon plan.

“They can’t really be promoting a scheme when there has been no formal consultation on the other proposal. So, I think they are racing ahead without due regard to the public’s view on this,” he added.

“The public’s view is crystal clear — they don’t want the pylons and they expect us, as their representatives, to oppose these proposals being imposed on us. That’s exactly what we intend to do.”

The representative for the Ingoldmells ward also noted that the council has requested the business plans for all three options, but ultimately, these have not been provided. Consequently, the Executive voted to conduct an independent review of the plans.

“We’ve requested their business plans and business cases for all three options, but these have not been forthcoming,” he explained.

“So we’re going to conduct our own independent review and look at what they are saying about costs.

“We don’t believe the costs for pylons are correct, simply because there’s no numbers for compensation requirements, compulsory purchases, or any of those things. We are going to have a real look at this.

“We are going to be very thorough about it and we are going to do it from a very legal perspective.”

Lincolnshire County Council Leader Martin Hill (Conservative) indicated that if the independent review into the plans reveals insufficient consideration of various other factors, they might contemplate further legal actions.

“I think there’s all sorts of other environmental and safety issues that would need to be taken into consideration so we have agreed to do a report on that,” he stated.

“But also, we’re not convinced that National Grid have done enough work to justify their decision.

“If we feel they’ve not gone through due process properly, we will consider legal action.”

A spokesperson for National Grid responded: “The government has set an ambition to connect up to 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 – enough green energy to power every home in the country.

“It is National Grid’s responsibility to connect new generation into the national transmission system and get it to where it is needed, safely and securely and in a way that is economic and efficient.

“We are governed by a number of licences and regulatory obligations, and we have been carrying out assessments and studies to find the most appropriate way to achieve this both in Lincolnshire, and in other parts of the country.

“The government’s National Policy Statement (NPS) which covers developing new electricity networks infrastructure states that the starting presumption for new electricity transmission projects should be overhead lines.

“We have assessed offshore and underground options for Grimsby to Walpole but at approximately four times more expensive for offshore and up to approximately six times more expensive for underground cables, this would be at significant extra cost to consumers, and would not align with the requirements placed on us.

“We understand that plans for new infrastructure, including overhead lines and pylons, can cause concern in nearby communities and with stakeholders, and we will be giving careful consideration to all the feedback we receive through our first consultation process which ends on 13 March.”