The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has been warned he faces battlegrounds across the country over plans to install thousands of pylons in unspoilt rural areas to deliver a “clean power” revolution.
Council leaders and communities oppose proposals for a vast new network of pylons across large parts of several counties, including Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
There are calls for community compensation of “hundreds of millions of pounds” if the schemes are pushed through.
The proposals are part of a £30bn National Grid overhaul – including the “great grid upgrade” plan announced last year – with connections to proposed vast new solar farms, battery storage facilities and offshore windfarms. A new generation of gas power stations may also be built and plugged into the upgraded grid to back up renewable energy and prevent the risk of blackouts.
“These pylons will desecrate the landscape, blot the views and wreck tourism,” said Colin Davie, executive councillor for economy and place at Lincolnshire county council.
These are horrible monoliths that belong to a past industrial age. We are not going to accept this. There will be a fight over it, without any a doubt.”
National Grid says its power network, built to deliver electricity from coal-fired power stations mainly in the Midlands and north of England, needs to be upgraded to provide energy from cleaner and more secure sources. Labour says it wants to “electrify the economy” and “make it easier” to build infrastructure.
Miliband has already lifted a de facto ban on onshore wind in England introduced in 2015 and approved three huge solar farms in the east of the country. He told the House of Commons on Thursday: “We will not carry on with a position where the clean energy we need does not get built.”