Lincolnshire county councillor warns of ‘full scale war’ over National Grid’s pylon plan
Energy bosses have been warned to expect 'full scale war' if they refuse to listen to county chiefs over a major pylon proposal.
After meeting the head of National Energy System Operating (NESO) at the Lincolnshire Energy Conference in February, Lincolnshire county councillor Colin Davie, portfolio holder for economic development, environment, and planning, has penned an open letter to director of strategic energy planning Julian Leslie.
He demanded 'proper meaningful dialogue' about a scheme that would involve a string of pylons heading from Grimsby through Lincolnshire to Walpole in Norfolk — and warned that if NESO showed no willingness to engage, the council is prepared for a 'full scale war'.
The National Grid scheme, billed as The Great Grid Upgrade, was first publicly announced in January 2024 and involves a new 400,000-volt electricity transmission line stretching 87 miles through the Lincolnshire countryside, passing through South Holland.
Since then, Lincolnshire County Council has outlined strong opposition to the project, threatening legal action and recently urging energy watchdog Ofgem not to approve its business case due to a lack of transparency over costs.
NESO acts as an independent public corporation at the centre of the energy system and is the infrastructure organisation responsible for delivering the Great Grid Upgrade by 2030.
"As regards Grimsby to Walpole, the council does not accept the proposition for an overhead cable line with substations at Alford. We are clear the best long-term solution for the United Kingdom is an integrated offshore grid, and where cables need to come onshore, they should do so via undergrounding," Coun Davie wrote in the letter.
"We know that this is the best option in the long term for the United Kingdom and its security of energy supply. We also know that there has been a long-term plan, going back some 20 years, to put overhead power lines and substations into East Lincolnshire with the aim of proliferating large-scale solar and onshore wind to connect to that line.
"That was indeed the proposal with Triton Knoll until we dug our heels in and insisted on underground cabling.
"We will not tolerate the whole eastern side of Lincolnshire being industrialised, destroying our wide-open skies, our natural environment, and wrecking our joint bid for UNESCO World Heritage Status for our coastline as part of the East Atlantic Flyway.
"Now is the time for NESO, National Grid, and the government to think again. As I said when we met, the county council can be a helpful partner, or we will use every avenue available to us to be a very angry and put-upon authority."
"The plans are not deliverable by 2030, as you know, so why not pause everything and enter into a proper meaningful dialogue with us about how we help you deliver your ambition without harming our county?"
In the letter, Coun Davie also claimed that he had learned that work on the ambitious pylon project had been ongoing since 2020, about three years before the county council was informed. National Grid has said that they had engaged with planning officers from late 2021.
"It was very clear that stuff had been going on way before we found out about it," he said following an executive meeting on Tuesday (March 4).
"We all know that civil servants and people who work with these organisations sit in darkened rooms working on ideas using desktop modelling, but ultimately nothing should happen to Lincolnshire without the councils knowing about it.
"Also, communities need to know so they can form an opinion early on, so they can get together and say, 'We're going to have this,' and also to make sure that our community voice comes through to us in a way that we can react to it in a way they want."
When asked how confident he is that LCC would win the fight against the pylon scheme, Coun Davie responded: "We will use every avenue available to us. Legal is one avenue, public pressure is another.
"We're obviously working with other councils in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex who have similar proposals, so that means it's a big area and millions of people are going to be impacted.
"They can't deliver it by 2030 anyway, it's physically impossible. Why don't we just take that off the table, sit down together, and work out what the best solution is for the government, for National Grid, and for Lincolnshire and its residents? I'm sure that somewhere in all of that, there is an accommodation that works for everybody," he added.
"As you'll have seen from the letter I have sent to Julian Leslie, I have made it crystal clear that we either have a sensible, grown-up conversation or we're going to full scale war."
A statement from a NESO spokesman stated: "We continue to work closely with all stakeholders, including locally elected representatives, as we develop and implement a more holistic approach to the future design of the national electricity network."
In response to the claims that work had been ongoing without LCC being informed, a spokesperson for National Grid said: "Grimsby to Walpole will help connect renewable energy to the grid and provide much-needed additional capacity, helping the country meet future energy demands.
"Where the National Energy System Operator (NESO) has identified a need to reinforce the network, National Grid assesses all the possible options. Once we have completed our initial appraisals, we share these with communities and stakeholders so we can listen to their views and obtain important feedback.
"Communities play an important role in helping to shape the development of our proposals. We have been discussing our early work with Lincolnshire County Council officers over several years and our first public consultation for Grimsby to Walpole took place in early 2024.
"We are grateful for all the feedback we have received. Our project team is carefully considering all of that as we develop more detailed proposals, which will be shared at our next public consultation later this year."
