A huge thank you to David Burns and Luke Marshall for their excellent and compelling presentation today, bringing residents up to date on the very latest developments regarding National Grid's East Anglian Pylon plans and the interdependencies with a number of offshore windfarm and interconnector projects. They made a powerful and well-researched case for an Offshore "Ring Main" to support future offshore windfarm growth, in preference to piecemeal new pylon projects such as East Anglia GREEN. Such an approach would reduce whole life costs and reduce nett adverse environmental impacts.
Thank you as well to the 80 or so local residents that gave up their time on a sunny Saturday afternoon to come along and listen. Residents were invited to sign up for email updates from the campaign team, who will then provide recommendations/templates for how best to respond to the steady stream of important government and industry consultations, in order to encourage a more joined-up and strategic approach to the development of our local and national power distribution network. To sign up for campaign updates, please visit this link:
If people respond to these consultations in large numbers it will be far harder for central government to ignore the views of the electorate. Responding as an individual would be hard and time consuming. Responding by using (or adapting) the suggested templates prepared by the Campaign Group takes very little time and is well worth the effort if you agree with the analysis of the Pylons Campaign Group, our City & County Council, our MP, and all the East Anglian MPs within the "OffSET" group.
The most urgent current consultation addresses the Five Estuaries Windfarm development, and the deadline for responses is very near - the 12th May. Below is the suggested email wording for responding to that consultation. You could cut and paste it and send it manually to the Five Rivers consultation team, copied to local MPs and County Councillors...but if you sign up for Campaign updates, all that hard work is done for you, so that you only need to literally click a button to send the template email to the correct email distribution list!
To: fiveestuaries@rwe.com; pylons@mail.com; Bernard.jenkin.mp@parliament.uk; Cllr.Lewis.Barber@essex.gov.uk; William.Sunnucks@colchester.gov.uk; DedhamVale.AONB.Pylons@mail.com
Dear Sir
I support in general terms your proposals to generate green electricity through offshore windfarms. However, I object in the strongest terms to your proposals to build cables back to shore, tunnel beneath the shoreline, underground cables through Tendring, and establish a sub-station near to Colchester as set out in your recent consultation documents.
According to National Grid the need to underground cable through the AONB, to build a large substation in Tendring and to erect pylons along the southern border of the AONB (including bisecting the Parish of Little Horkesley and approaching to within 50m of the AONB within the Parish) contained within their “East Anglia Green” proposals are driven by the need to carry electricity from your windfarm together with that of North Falls with whom you share an investor.
Your project must therefore be seen together with and is inseparable from the “East Anglia Green” proposals set out by National Grid.
Your proposals if permitted would contribute to irreparable damage to the AONB and to our Parish. National Planning Policy requires that damage to the AONB is avoided entirely. Damage can clearly be caused within the AONB by infrastructure which is visible from within even if located outside. Even in places where pylons and the sub-stations are not visible within (although there will be few given the geography) the setting of the AONB will be harmed by industrialisation along its border as all major entry routes will pass beneath or alongside the proposed pylons and substations. Your proposals are therefore unacceptable given the resulting damage to our landscape, seascape, cultural heritage in a protected setting.
Even that section of our parish which is outside of the AONB is of special character containing many listed buildings including scheduled monuments, Grade 1 and 2 Listed Buildings where the views over wide open fields are historic and of cultural importance and have not changed for hundreds of years. The ‘purple swathe’ runs directly through these areas. There are numerous sites of archaeological interest in the surrounding area. Again, the purple swathe runs directly through these areas. There are very limited industrial sites within the parish and the presence of pylons is fundamentally incompatible with this area.
As demonstrated by ESO in their December 2020 paper the establishment of a coordinated offshore grid would be approximately £6Bn cheaper when the costs of all parties are summed, result in less use of cable both offshore and onshore and thereby result in less damage in both settings, AND result in a more stable grid. It would also render the proposed infrastructure in our area unnecessary.
We therefore kindly request that you revisit your proposals and work collaboratively with others to establish a coordinated offshore proposal.
Yours faithfully
