North Somerset campaigners step up fight against electricity line

Campaigners fighting plans to put a new 400,000-volt electricity line through the North Somerset countryside are holding a public meeting to rally support against the proposal.

Nailsea, Wraxall and Backwell residents have launched the Save Our Valley campaign to fight off 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 onto 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 gets the go ahead, 160-foot pylons will be installed along the route.

Campaigners are hoping that residents will pack the public meeting on November 27 at a venue and time to be confirmed.

And they are planning to invite representatives of National Grid to the meeting so residents can raise questions about the proposal.

Save Our Valley campaign spokeswoman, Sue Turner, said: "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."

Other options for National Grid include decommissioning its existing 132,000-volt line, which runs parallel to the M5, and adopting the same route for the new one. Depending upon the final route, the new overhead line would be about 37 miles long and built in 2016 at a cost of about £2 million per mile. The size of the pylons would also nearly double, with the new ones being as high as 46.5 metres – nearly 160ft – compared to existing pylons which are between 25-30 metres in height.