Moulton Seas End Village Hall packed as residents continue calls to future proof electricity grid in Lincolnshire instead of relying on pylons for renewable energy

Residents are calling on electrical bosses to ‘future-proof’ the grid by using underground cables instead of relying on ‘old’ pylons to bring in renewable energy.

Thousands of people – including many from South Holland – have joined the NoPylonsLincolnshire protest group to fight against the National Grid’s plans to put up hundreds of these structures along the Lincolnshire coast which will take in this district.

The National Grid says it is looking to overhaul its transmission system by putting up a string of pylons between Grimsby and Walpole, in Norfolk, in order to move renewable energy across the country. It also includes a substation at Weston Marsh.

Moulton Seas End Village Hall was reported to be packed out last week as scores of residents went along to a consultation event to learn more about the project and sharing concerns.

Andrew Malkin, a member of the protest group, wants the firm to adopt a different method rather than relying on ‘old technology’ of putting up an 87-mile swathe of a minimum of 420 pylons.

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He said: “We are also proposing an offshore and future-proofed integrated grid for future offshore wind farm connections - as they have done in Belgium and Denmark.

“The 50-metre pylons they will use, should it go overland, will be equivalent to a 15-storey building or as tall as Nelson's Column. Main concerns are environmental blight for decades, use of much grade 1 agricultural land used to grow food and some health concerns. Pylons are old technology and if there's a better, cleaner way of doing it that's the way forward.

“National Grid is a private foreign-owned company which in the past five years paid its shareholders almost £9 billion. They do this work for profit and will continue to earn from these cables for decades, so it can afford to do the right environmental thing and leave the cables under the sea as close to the final grid connection point as possible.

“It is crucial at this stage that as many people as possible respond before March 13 as National Grid has promised this first consultation will shape their plans.”

The National Grid says the cost of an underground scheme, including substations, is approximately £6.5billion – but this is being challenged by the protest group.

The grid states that without the additional network capability brought by the proposal, offshore windfarms could be ‘constrained’ at high generation times as the power could not be safely transported due to the existing transmission system.

A spokesperson for National Grid said: “Government and the regulator require us to develop proposals which not only comply with government planning policy and environmental legislation, but are also efficient, economical and represent value for money to consumers, as the cost of new network infrastructure goes onto the energy bills of households across the country.

“We understand that plans for new infrastructure, including pylons, can cause concern in nearby communities, and we will be giving careful consideration to environmental and community impacts, and to feedback we receive from local people and stakeholders through our first consultation process which runs until 13 March 2024.”

Email contact@g-w.nationalgrid.com or call 0800 0129 153 to request a consultation pack with feedback form and a free post return envelope.

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