Parliament will debate the place of pylons in the future of the electricity grid thanks to Matt Warman MP’s securing a debate on the subject.
Taking place on Thursday 2nd May 2024 at 12:30 in the House of Commons’ Westminster Hall, it will provide an occasion for backbenchers to raise the many concerns of constituents about land being taken out of food production and landscapes being despoiled, at potentially significant cost to local tourism industries.
The Great Grid Upgrade is the largest upgrade of our electricity grid since the 1950s, and aims to improve and build more of the infrastructure needed to meet the UK’s expanding energy needs as well as our increased output of renewable domestic energy.
The upgrade consists of a number of projects across the country, and whilst National Grid proposes to build electricity cables underground or offshore in other parts of the country, the Grimsby to Walpole project proposes to build a new overhead line and pylons across Lincolnshire’s countryside. In the Boston and Skegness constituency these pylons would pass through an emerging corridor from Burgh Le Marsh, through New LEAKE, Carrington, Frithville and Sutterton.
Matt has held several public meetings on this matter, attended by over 300 of his constituents, and has corresponded with hundreds more constituents via email and on social media. He has also met with National Grid and their representatives to discuss these proposals in detail.
Commenting on the forthcoming debate, Matt Warman MP said:
“I am highly concerned that at a time when pylons elsewhere in the country are being removed, residents in Lincolnshire aren’t being offered more than the one option considered in National Grid’s narrow public consultation.
It is clear that, not just my own constituents in Boston and Skegness, but also residents from neighbouring constituencies in Lincolnshire and the East of England, are opposed to strings of pylons polluting the rural and unspoilt parts of our country. The future needs of the grid would be better served by a different approach.
I have been making the case to Ministers that whilst National Grid is rightly burying cables underground in parts of the country such as Dorset, we shouldn’t be putting them up in Lincolnshire. Ultimately, it is vital that other options given greater consideration and pylons are not seen as the default.
I look forward to having the opportunity to raise this important matter in Parliament later this week”.
Matt has formally objected this proposal for a number of reasons, including the potential threat it poses to food security by taking large amounts of agricultural land out of production, the potential negative impact it will have on Lincolnshire’s nature based tourism, and the visual impact it will have on Lincolnshire’s flat landscape.
Fellow Lincolnshire MPs, Victoria Atkins and Sir John Hayes, as well as Lincolnshire County Council, and Police and Crime Commissioner, Marc Jones, have all also formally objected to the proposal, while other Members of Parliament have also objected to the range of other National Grid schemes proposed under the Great Grid Upgrade.