Nailsea campaign to fight new 400,000 volt electricity line
Residents have launched a campaign to fight controversial plans to put a new 400,000 volt electricity line through the countryside around Nailsea.
Scores of people packed a special meeting this week to discuss plans by National Grid to create a new overhead line from Bridgwater to Avonmouth to bring electricity from the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point on to its transmission network.
The power giant is looking at a series of options for the new line, along two route corridors – one of which would cut through the countryside from Wraxall to Backwell and Nailsea.
The line would come over Wraxall Hill and past the school and church and then down alongside The Elms before crossing Backwell Common, going along the railway line and Backwell Lake towards Youngwood Lane.
If the scheme got the go ahead it would see new 160ft towering pylons installed.
Residents have now launched the Save Our Valley campaign, pledging to fight the proposal tooth and nail.
They plan to launch a website, petition and leaflet campaign and hold a public meeting at the end of November for local residents to air their views on the scheme to National Grid bosses.
Save Our Valley spokeswoman Sue Turner said: "We need to make it clear to National Grid the huge groundswell of public opinion against these proposals.
"There are already pylons around Nailsea and even more will transform the countryside into an industrial landscape – it will be like having an electric fence around the town.
"These towering pylons – the size of two large oak trees – will dominate the landscape and ruin our countryside, cutting through swathes of our green belt. A lot of people also have serious health concerns about the pylons and feel it is not the sort of environment they want to bring their children up in.
"We want people to come and join us and help campaign against this proposal.
"National Grid seems to think that Nailsea is just a small settlement and the new line will just affect a scattering of homes. But this is not the case and these pylons will affect thousands of people."
Other options being considered include decommissioning its existing 132,000 volt line, which runs parallel to the M5, and adopting the same route for the new one.
3 Comments
by S Williams, Trendlewood, Nailsea
Tuesday, November 03 2009, 2:13PM
“Totally against this plan. Will spoil the countryside and is potentially a massive health risk to all residents. Why can they not put this underground? I think this plan is disgusting and has given no thought to the residents in the areas which it will have an affect on, or people that currently visit these local areas.”
by Jim Duffy, Stop Hinkley, Bridgwater
Thursday, October 29 2009, 12:11PM
“We are against this very high voltage power line. Health issues have been linked to these lines, especially for those living close by. Our advisor Professor Chris Busby suggests the electro-magnetic fields make existing radiation more potent thus creating a health effect. Radiation even at low levels is known to be a risk, particularly to vulnerable individuals.
But it is also wasteful to have so much electricity shifted so far from its source of generation, ultimately out of the region.
A more ecological scheme used extensively in Denmark and other countries, provides local 'decentralised' electricity using lower voltage Direct Current which is more efficient. It allows small electricity generators such as single wind turbines and household generated electricity to go onto a 'local grid'.
It's more sensible to avoid the health risks and wastage associated with high voltage cables which means reviewing the way we produce our electricity from large centralised power stations to smaller scale local forms of generation. If we allow colossal nuclear reactors like Hinkley C to be built it will lock us into an inefficient, polluting technology for fifty years.”
by Sue Turner, Nailsea
Wednesday, October 28 2009, 11:36AM
“Thank you to the Evening Post for telling people about this horrendous threat to our countryside. To join Save Our Valley email s.turner@blueyonder.co.uk today.”