National Grid has informed us that it is postponing its announcement about which part of Mid Wales it wants to desecrate with its landscape wrecking 400 kv line from Shropshire to a 20 acre electricity substation in mid-Montgomeryshire to serve around 500/600 new wind turbines. Personally I welcome this postponement. Eventually the madness of onshore wind in general and this scheme in particular will become obvious to all, so the longer its put off the better. Griff Rhys Jones came up with an interesting observation today when he described onshore wind as the "hypocrisy of green tokenism".
Amusingly, National Grid are putting it about that they are agonising over a difficult decision, and want to consider carefully impact on our countryside. You can believe that if you want. Is that a pig with a propeller on its back flying past my window! Far more likely that National Grid decided to postpone its decision so as to avoid its horrible plans being a Council election issue, and realised that to announce this week would expose its blatant tactics - so another postponement might make it look better.
Not sure that National Grid realises just how hated its becoming in Mid Wales. No-one likes a bully, no matter how the brutality is dressed up in nice words and glossy leaflets. In Mid Wales, National Grid is the black enemy of the people.
8 comments:
Very well said Glyn. The National Grid and SPEN (the 132kVa lines will be just as intrusive in their setting) hide behind their legal obligations to provide the power lines and hub. What they don't say is that they can choose to provide them in whatever way they wish, i.e, undergrounding. If their proposal was entirely underground, and they passed those costs on to the onshore windfarm developers, it'd soon put a stop to it.
With out National Grid I would not even have had a cup of tea Today.
The Hospitals in Mid Wales would be closed.
All the Fuel stations in Mid Wales would be closed, and so on.
Glyn you were elected MP for the whole of Montg and not the whole of Montg share your view on National Grid!
Personally I am very Grateful and Thankful for the National Grid and all those who put their lives at risk every day especially in the winter months for the benefit of us all.
Actually Glyn, I quite like having electricity.
Not so keen on poles and pylons but you can't have one without the other.
John - Everyone in Montgomeryshire knew my position on onshore wind well before the General Election. And frankly, I reckon your argument that our power supply depends on wind to be completely misguided. How are you going to have your cup of tea when the wind is not blowing?
Another piece of good news in the Daily Mail yesterday - at last the High Court has judged that communities have the right to shape the places where they live. The judge found that no single piece of law on climate change had primacy over other environmental legislation. And the protection of the landscape was no less important than the Government's renewable energy targets.
This is a victory for common sense and a validation for all those of us that said it was important for planning to respect the 3 long established pillars of good planning policy i.e. economic, environmental and social considerations.
These basic tenets of planning management and control have served us fairly well over the last half century and we will need them more than ever as the population continues to grow in these overcrowded nations of ours.
Mairede>>> You said you were going to answer me later......, as to the question I asked you on Paul Williams blog , "do the pylons from Wylfa affect/effect the tourists coming to Anglesey?" still waiting!
Glyn, Regarding a cup of tea when the wind is not blowing, there wont be a problem as I understand the coalition are planning for a diverse energy mixture. In the case of Nuclear rather it should be called perverse!
Have a nice weekend.
John Jones - I don't know about the tourists but I hate the line of pylons that dissect this island. The cables could be undergrounded and should be. Yes it would cost more but all those lovely people who live miles away in the cities and towns that benefit from Wylfa A's power could pay a few more pennies for their power, I'm sure they would not mind after all they don't have to live with a huge nuclear power station on their doorstep.
And the townies seem very happy to pay all that extra money to wind farm developers who, according to the latest full year figures, contribute a mere 3% of the UK's electricity.
I'm sure the good people of London, Cardiff, Manchester etc would never object if all the new nuclear power stations and 350ft wind turbines were on their streets. In fact it might be easier to put them closer to where the largest number of people live and work, that's sustainable isn't it?
Mairede.> thanks for being honest!
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