East Lindsey District Council Leader issues statement on National Grid pylon consultation

The proposal is part of National Grid’s Great Grid Upgrade, an overhaul of the electricity grid involving new infrastructure projects across the country.

The grid proposed installing new overhead cabling through Lincolnshire between Grimsby and Walpole near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, along with new electricity substations.

In a statement, Coun Craig Leyland, Leader of East Lindsey District Council said: “A year ago, National Grid held their Stage 1 Consultation on the early proposals for their Grimsby to Walpole project.

“We are now nearing the end of their Stage 2 Consultation which has run from June 11 and will close at midnight on Wednesday August 6. If councillors or residents have not made their submissions, I encourage them to do so. ELDC as the Local Planning Authority will be making a detailed technical submission.

“I speak as a concerned community and council leader. Our residents, communities, and affected ward councillors are still grappling with the potential unwanted intrusion of this 400KV overhead transmission line across our district.

“As I’ve stated before, this will scar and destroy vistas that have existed for millennia and are valued by residents now and will be into the future.

“This will undoubtedly affect a tourism industry worth £874 million in 2024 employing 6,500 residents in the sector.

“It will also alter the balance of economics for many operating farms across Lincolnshire who may be tempted to move away from food production to energy generation as, nationally, we ignore the necessity of food security.

“It will also drive tenant farmers off the land and threaten compulsory purchase on those landowners who resist the move away from traditional agriculture.

“And all this is alongside the government’s proposed changes to the national planning regime that will see compulsory purchase of land to facilitate solar farms and a change in the threshold of who makes decisions on large renewable energy applications.

“More applications will be considered as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects decided by the Planning Inspectorate and the Secretary of State.

“This scheme is being presented to us as a means of taking energy from where it is being produced to where it is needed in the south of England. Seemingly all well and good, but the reality, I fear, is somewhat different.

“There are a number of questions that have not as yet been fully answered: Why is there not an alternative to this proposed route? Surely it would make more sense to have an undersea link straight to the Thames Estuary?

“Why are there two proposed substations near Alford?

“The answers to these questions lie in the nature of what National Grid is.

“It is a publicly traded company whose shares can be purchased on the stock market. Its motivation is therefore not necessarily the interests of those that are affected by its transmission lines but rather its shareholders. And while I’m happy to say I’m a capitalist, sometimes the interests of capital are not always benign.

“This link is not just a transmission line north to south, it is an open door to future large scale solar and onshore renewable generation along its whole length. If allowed this district will be the generating and storage hub for the southeast of England with little or no benefit to our residents.

“Alford has two substations because one is not enough to connect all the anticipated connections that will be driven by multiple solar farms along its route. We already know energy companies are lining up to purchase land.

“It will decimate our tourism industry. It will distort our agricultural heritage into a grotesque sea of sterile solar panels and make institutions and companies with no connection to Lincolnshire very rich. All to the detriment of what we value locally.

“I don’t believe National Grid have provided full costings for other routes including the seabed option. This information must be detailed and made public. They have arbitrarily determined that pylons are the best option without providing the detailed evidence.

“The previous position of LCC before the local election was that a legal challenge would be funded against National Grid forcing them to provide such information.

“While I read this morning that LCC will spend £750K on planning consultants, I would urge the county council’s new Executive - if they are serious about stopping the pylons - to agree to use such a legal challenge.

“We must disrupt the onslaught of this monstrosity across our district.

“Again, I say to residents affected: please, please make your submission on the consultation before August 6th.”

A National Grid spokesperson said: “National Grid's Grimsby to Walpole project will deliver homegrown, more affordable electricity to where it is needed, helping to meet the rising demand for electricity in Lincolnshire. Most farming activities can continue around infrastructure, so the overall impact on agricultural productivity is minimal. During operation, only the land directly beneath each pylon is permanently affected.

"We have previously shared costs for the Grimsby to Walpole project, and an overhead line offers the most efficient, reliable and cost-effective way to deliver the home-grown, affordable, British energy. At approximately £4.8bn for an onshore high voltage direct current underground cable alternative, £7.1bn for an onshore high voltage alternating current cable and £4.2bn for an offshore subsea cable, all are at significantly greater cost than the approximate £1.6bn cost of the onshore option we are proposing.

"National Grid is regulated by Ofgem – this means that lower costs result in lower bills for families and businesses across the country."

National Grid states that the independent Institution of Engineering and Technology conducted a study of electricity transmission technologies, finding pylons to be the most cost-effective solution. AC underground cables were found to be 4.5 times more expensive than overhead lines, and they have to take this into consideration when developing every new project, as all costs ultimately go onto energy bills.

The costs were set out in the Strategic Options Report (SOR) along with how they are calculated, at the first consultation, in Spring 2024. National Grid state they provided the costs again in the revised SOR at the consultation happening now and finishing on August 6.

You can find out more about the proposals and take part in the consultation here: www.nationalgrid.com/electricity-transmission/network-and-infrastructure/infrastructure-projects/grimsby-to-walpole