Norfolk County Council opposes Norwich to Tilbury pylons

Members of Conservative-controlled Norfolk County Council have agreed to oppose National Grid's contentious Norwich to Tilbury power scheme.

Those proposals include almost 90 50-metre-high pylons over 17 miles of the Norfolk countryside.

Councillors said people should not have to live in the shadow of the structures if alternatives - such as taking the power on cables under the sea - were possible.

James Bensly (Image: Norfolk Conservatives)

James Bensly, cabinet member for environment and waste, said: "My concern is the impact on the environment and the residents.

"There are other options there and they just don't seem to be exploring it fully."

Councillors on the authority's planning and highways delegations committee agreed at a meeting on Monday to table an objection as part of the consultation process.

Nearly 90 pylons would be built over Norfolk countryside

They agreed to urge that National Grid to pause its current plans and consider alternative options.

Energy company bosses say the power line from Norfolk to Essex is needed to allow electricity generated by North Sea wind farms to be used elsewhere in the country.

Graham Plant (Image: Newsquest)

But Graham Plant, cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure, said National Grid needed to look beyond the "cheapest option" of overground pylons.

Councillors said an offshore solution - with the power taken to Essex under the sea - had not been given proper consideration.

And they said, if the cables did have to come over land, more should be buried beneath the ground.

Stephen Faulkner, the council's principal planner, said they should be buried in the area around Diss, Bressingham and Roydon, because of the "cumulative effect" of more pylons in an area which already has a high number.

Diss (Image: Archant Norfolk Photographic © 2015)

National Grid has said said taking the cables offshore would not meet requirements of the government and the regulator, while using pylons, rather than burying cable underground, reduces costs to bill payers.

County councillors previously backed a motion expressing concerns over the proposals, which are also opposed by MPs and the Pylons East Anglia campaign group.

Campaigners are opposing the pylon plans (Image: Christine Murton)

Consultation - at nationalgrid.com/norwich-to-tilbury - had been due to end in mid-June.

But it has been extended until Friday, July 26, due to the general election.