Swineshead action group wants VikingLink to change station site

More than 150 people came to Swineshead Village Hall for a meeting about a £1.6 billion project to send electricity between Britain and Denmark, with a substation at Bicker Fen central to the project.

The meeting was organised by Swineshead Viking Action Group, set up after the village was named as one of four possible sites for a converter station to change electricity sent underground from direct into alternating current power for homes and businesses.

A spokesman for the action group said: “The meeting went very well and over 150 Swineshead residents were able to listen to (Boston Rural) county councillor Michael Brookes and Paul Edwards of Boston Borough Council answer their questions.

“There was some lively conversation and everyone we spoke to after the meeting were all horrified at the thought of this converter station being built next to them.

“Our opinion is that there are far better sites available for the converter station than a beautiful village like Swineshead which has a lot of history.

“This would be a massive site in a beautiful Fenland landscape which would destroy Swineshead and change the village forever.”

The Viking Link project, a proposed 1,400 megawatt, high voltage direct electricity link between Bicker Fen and the centre of western Denmark, will involve the building of three sites in eastern Lincolnshire.

As well as the main Bicker Fen substation, a converter station will need to be built on one of four sites that are within three miles of Bicker Fen, including Bicker itself, Donington and Swineshead.

A statement produced by VikingLink for all three villages, project managers said: “We need to bring a pair of electricity cables onshore and run them underground to a new converter station before connecting into the high voltage electricity transmission network.

“We identified 21 potential converter station sites within 5kms (3 miles) of Bicker Fen substation and considered technical and engineering issues, alongside potential impacts on the environment and the local community.

“Four options (two in Bicker, Donington and Swineshead) emerged as more preferable and these four sites have been shortlisted for pubic consultation.

“The project is at an early stage and the impact of any proposals on local people and the environment will be carefully considered as we develop our project.”

Meanwhile, Coun Brookes said: “The people at the meeting were, quite rightly, extremely concerned and opposed to the possibility of a massive converter station so near to a large and growing village.

“There are also proposals for another 400 dwellings in Swineshead over the next 20 years, so they were encouraged to respond to the consultation and make their objections to the converter station known.

“As representative for the people of Swineshead and Bicker on Lincolnshire County Council, I share their grave concerns about the proposals for extensive industrial scale development in the open countryside of this area.

“This includes the possible cumulative effects of these proposals, combined with the Triton Knoll Wind Farm interconnection proposals, and I will support them in their opposition to the converter station.”

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