Our view

Electricity pylons in the countryside, Sheffield

The visual intrusion of pylons and overhead wires has a massive impact on the landscapes in which they are placed.

Electricity transmission and protected landscapes
National Grid, the company that owns the electricity transmission network in Britain, works to guidelines (the 'Holford Rules' and the 'Horlock Rules') for the routing of transmission lines and substations. These state that areas of high landscape value should, if possible, be avoided.

In the UK, this therefore refers to:

  • Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs)
  • National Parks
  • Heritage Coasts
  • World Heritage Sites

Despite these guidelines, overhead transmission lines directly intrude into designated landscapes at a number of locations, including Snowdonia National Park and the Cotswold AONB.

Economic impact of visual intrusion
It has been shown that as well as the aesthetic consequences of visual intrusion caused by transmission lines, there are also economic consequences. High environmental quality has a positive impact on where businesses choose to locate. Many people visit National Parks and AONBs because of the peace and the beauty of the landscape and the absence of visual intrusions such as power lines.

National Policy Statement
We believe that the National Policy Statement on electricity transmission could provide an important step for moving towards a sustainable supply of energy. We will call for:

  • new high voltage power lines to avoid AONBs, National Parks, World Heritage Sites and Green Belts; and moves towards removing or undergrounding existing lines in those areas
  • the use of new pylon designs that reduce impacts on the landscape where new lines in the countryside are unavoidable
  • the use of measures to reduce demand for electricity from the grid, such as 'smart metering' and incentives for people to generate their own electricity from renewable sources (such as solar panels and heat pumps) to 'feed in' to the wider electricity network
  • more research into effective methods of storing electricity, particularly from renewable sources
  • new offshore wind farms and connections to the National Grid using underground cables and existing substations

If these issues are recognised, we believe that this should be the last time that the need for more high voltage overhead transmission lines should arise, even though a national grid is likely to be necessary for the foreseeable future.