Who are we?
We are residents of the village of Yatton in North Somerset, many of whom are parents of young children. We are strongly opposed to proposals by National Grid to route 37 miles of new 400,000 volt power lines through the beautiful North Somerset countryside potentially cutting our village in half and ruining our environment forever.
We are deeply concerned for the future health of our children and for all residents of North Somerset who live in communities that may be impacted by these proposals which have previously been described by Dr Liam Fox MP as “an act of environmental vandalism”.
The planning process outlined in the Planning Act 2008 requires that National Grid carry out a pre-application consultation with communities affected by the proposal before submitting a formal application under the Planning Act to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC). It is the view of the Yatton Against Pylons group that this consultation process has been deeply flawed and that National Grid are not listening to the views of the many thousands of North Somerset residents who believe strongly that viable alternatives such as undersea routing of the proposed Hinkley Point Connection must be considered.
National Grid’s Plans
National Grid plans to erect new 153ft super-pylons to connect a new 3600MW nuclear power station at Hinkley Point by September 2017. Two routes have been put forward. Corridor 1 would replace some of the existing power lines to the north west of Yatton. Corridor 2 would involve an additional set of lines running south of Nailsea, over the top of Kingston Seymour and North End and continuing south of Yatton close to the Strawberry Line.
These 400,000 volt cables will be carried on pylons the height of ten double decker buses. Currently the 132,000 volt cables which run close to Kingston Seymour are on pylons around half the height of the new ones. We are currently in the midst of the pre-application ‘consultation’ stage, but it ends on January 22nd 2010 when one of the two routes will selected by National Grid and they will proceed with their application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).
We don’t have long to make our voices heard and we believe the residents of Yatton and other villages are being rail-roaded into opting for one of these routes when there are other more viable alternatives.
Consequences
The planned construction has a number of extremely serious consequences for Yatton and the surrounding area. Numerous reports have linked electricity pylons to increased rates of leukaemia in children who live nearby. Residents living in the shadows of the pylons are more likely to suffer from depression and there are housing estates in the north of England which are close to pylons where the miscarriage rate is 17 TIMES higher than the national average.
These pylons will also have a devastating effect on local wildlife and could even knock as much as 30 per cent off the value of homes in the immediate vicinity.
Alternatives
The United States and many European countries have taken heed of health warnings from global experts on the subject and now bury electricity cables underground alongside motorways or in areas where they don’t impact on wildlife or residents’ quality of life. In other cases, including the Isles of Scilly, the cables have been laid under the sea.
National Grid, and EDF who have commissioned National Grid to install the Hinkley Point – Avonmouth connection, have so far refused to even consider these alternatives apparently on the basis of cost and convenience.
