Shropshire Council to object to plans for overhead power lines
Shropshire Council is set to tell National Grid that cables connecting planned and newly-built wind farms in Mid Wales to the existing national electricity transmission network should not pass through Shropshire and, if they do, they should be carried underground and any route should be determined by social, economic and environmental constraints.
National Grid is proposing to construct a new substation to collect the energy from the wind farms and a new 400,000 volt (400 kV) transmission connection, which will then take the power from the substation and connect it to the national transmission system.
National Grid is currently carrying out the first stage of a public consultation into how this will be done and Shropshire Council is one of the consultees.
The consultation is asking for people’s views on:
• The location of the new substation.
• The approach National Grid will take to connecting the new energy generation – ie. underground or overground cables.
• The route the connection will take.
At its meeting next Wednesday (15 June), Shropshire Council’s Cabinet members will agree the council’s response to the consultation.
Councillor Mal Price, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for planning, said:
“Shropshire Council recognises that National Grid is required to connect new wind farms to the network. However, Shropshire is a rural county where the attractive rural landscape character makes a significant contribution to the visitor economy. The impact of a 400kv overhead line connection is considered to be significantly detrimental to this and Shropshire Council would object on these grounds to any overhead line solution.
“These recommendations reflect the views and concerns of local people in relation to these proposals. We know that local people do not want to see pylons and overhead cables crossing the county, and nor does the council.”
Shropshire Council’s full proposed response to the consultation, which Cabinet members will be asked to approve, is as follows:
That the National Grid be advised of the following:
(i) Shropshire Council recognises that National Grid is required to connect new wind farms to the network and that as a result of the wider objectives to provide sustainable energy generation solutions new connections are needed to accommodate planned windfarms within the Technical Advice Note (TAN) 8 area. However, a coordinated approach is required having regard to the wider implications of proposed wind farm and other energy generation schemes. This should include anticipated capacity requirements for the energy transmission network and the broader social, economic and environmental impacts of the associated infrastructure projects.
(ii) National Grid has identified two substation locations which create an east west route corridor through Shropshire in preference to connections north or south of the TAN 8 strategic search areas. Shropshire Council considers that routes north (described as Option 1) should be re-evaluated and that the promoters should provide further evidence for how social, economic and environmental constraints of alternative route corridor options and sub station locations have been assessed.
(iii) Having regard to (ii) above, Shropshire Council does not express a preference at this stage to either of the identified preferred sub station sites at Cefn Coch or Abermule.
(iv) Powys and Shropshire are rural counties where the attractive rural landscape character makes a significant contribution to the visitor economy. The impact of a 400kv overhead line connection is considered to be significantly detrimental to this and Shropshire Council would object on these grounds to an overhead line solution.
(v) Without prejudice to this objection, should a route corridor through Shropshire be chosen by the promoter for submission to the Infrastructure Planning Commission for consideration the preferred solution would be via an underground connection and any route be determined by the social, economic and environmental constraints.
(vi) In the event that a route corridor for the 400kv connection through Shropshire is identified as the preferred choice for the promoters, The National Grid, Scottish Power Energy Networks and SSE Renewables should be requested to consult with Shropshire Council Planning Authority & Powys County Council in advance of any application submission to the Infrastructure Planning Commission on a draft list of conditions, heads of terms for any S106 agreement in relation to the implementation of the project and be requested to enter into a Planning Performance Agreement with these local planning authorities to provide a project management framework for the application process.
When the public consultation is complete, Shropshire and Powys Councils will have a further opportunity to comment on this process and provide report(s) on the National Grid consultation to the Infrastructure Planning Commission for consideration prior to the submission of any application.
Further phases of consultation are planned throughout 2011 and early 2012 and National Grid is expecting to submit the formal planning application during 2012.
As the proposal deals with nationally significant infrastructure, the decision on the route of the connection will be taken by the national Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), not by Shropshire Council.
The agenda and reports for Cabinet on 15 June can be found by clicking here.
