1st September 2016 - NuGEN and National Grid Expand NuGEN’s Moorside project will develop a new generation nuclear power station on land in West Cumbria, North West England. It will be capable of powering 6 million homes and supplying 7.5 per cent of the UK's electricity needs. NuGEN expects to give final approval in 2018 with construction starting in 2020 and all three reactors on stream by 2026. It promises a major boost to the local economy and employment opportunities but its positioning on Cumbria’s west coast means that connecting its output to the distribution system has introduced the spectre of 50 metre tall pylons cutting a swathe through 38 kilometres of the Lake District National Park and its setting. These giant pylons are the grid connection solution proposed by National Grid, the organisation responsible for connecting the power station to the electricity grid as part of their North West Coast Connections (NWCC) project plan. The Moorside and NWCC projects have each been designated as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP’s) in their own right due to their size. This means that each will be examined separately by planning inspectors. This designation means each project must consider the potential for the cumulative effects that arise from the interactions between their different components, and should work together to ensure that areas such as the Lake District and its setting are protected. Our ongoing campaign, ‘Say No to Pylons in the Lake District’ and events such as our ‘Black Combe Walk’ have been raising national awareness about the damaging impact that pylons would have on the landscape. National Grid has subsequently made limited concessions, offering to underground just 3-11km of the 38km of lines running through the park and its setting. More recently it announced the postponement of a public consultation event planned for September stating that it needed more time to discuss its proposals with people and organisations in Cumbria. We see this as a hopeful sign that National Grid may be listening to the groundswell of local and national opinion and we will be urging NuGEN, the developer of the Moorside project to do the same. We feel that it is incumbent on NuGEN to contribute to the cost of burying these electricity cables and to help National Grid to put connections underground for the entire 38km route from Drigg to Askham in Furness, including a tunnel underneath the Duddon Estuary. Kate Willshaw, Policy Officer, “This isn’t a pro- or anti-nuclear debate as far as we’re concerned, and we fully appreciate that we have to supply our country’s energy needs. Our point is that if it wasn’t for the Moorside project, there would be no need for these new 400kV lines around the west of Cumbria and the landscape damage caused. “We want NuGEN and National Grid to work together to develop measures addressing the cumulative impact of the Moorside and NWCC developments on our world renowned landscapes”. Friends of the Lake District will be working to persuade National Grid and NuGEN that this is an opportunity to publicly embrace the significance of the Lake District National Park by working in partnership and ensuring that power connection are put underground.
1st November 2016 Campaign Update Expand 1st November 2016 - Campaign latest news On Monday 24th October, National Grid annouced that it is to underground all of the new 400kV cables through the Lake District. This was wonderful news, and we'd like to personally thank all of those members and supporters sending messages of support and congratulations, it was certainly worth celebrating and something we’ve been campaigning for since 2011. Great news for the National Park but bad news for the areas of outstanding landscape falling on the wrong side of the park boundary. National Grid still wants to erect pylons just outside of the Lake District within the landscape ‘setting’ of the National Park. The landscape setting for a national park is the area whose landscape character compliments that of the national park itself, either through similarity or contrast, and in some way supports or enhances its landscape through views into or out of the national park. The setting is also defined by the intervisibility of the landscapes on either side of the park boundary. So whilst the Lake District has a hard boundary, the landscape outside of this boundary is a very important part of what makes the National Park special. In light of the importance of the setting, the decision of National Grid to place pylons within metres of the National Park boundary along the Whicham Valley strikes Friends of the Lake District as paying lip service to the designation of the Lake District rather than actually protecting the National Park and its setting from this development. (click image to enlarge) We also have major concerns about the proposals to put pylons across the Duddon Estuary and straight through the Duddon Mosses Special Area of Conservation from The Green on the west side to Kirkby in Furness, east of the estuary. This part of the Duddon is flat salt marsh backdropped by the hills of the Lake District rising behind. It’s the only estuary in England where mountains meet the sea and is a vital part of the setting of the Lake District. In our view, this scenery is as valuable as any actually within the National Park, and for National Grid to erect 50m tall pylons across this special landscape is vandalism on an industrial scale. (click image to enlarge) These are the issues that we will be fighting for over the next ten weeks of the North West Coast Connections (NWCC) consultation which starts today and runs for 10 weeks. We will let you know how you could help us with this fight. Over the next couple of weeks Friends of the Lake District will be going through the 7000+ pages of consultation documents and maps and will start to prepare our consultation response. We will update this information again by 18th November with more detail about our objections to this proposal and how you can get involved by writing to National Grid and others to raise the issues of landscape damage to the National Park setting. Meanwhile, you can take a look at the documents themselves on the NWCC website. These are found under the heading Proposed Route Alignment Stage – 2016 I suggest you start by reading the Non-Technical Summary which gives an overview of the project itself. There is a useful Map Booklet which shows the route of the cables. The areas we are most concerned about are Sections E1 and E2 the Whicham Valley and the head of the Duddon Estuary. (The links are large documents and slow to download)
24th October 2016 - Lake District power line to go underground Expand PRESS RELEASE 24th October 2016 National Grid is to spare the Lake District National Park from the prospect of 50 metre tall pylons being built through 24 km of the park. National Grid’s North West Coast Connections project will run 400kV cables around the west of Cumbria from Carlisle in the north to Heysham in the south to provide connections from the proposed Moorside power station to the electricity grid. It has now confirmed that it plans to look at putting 23.4km (14.5 miles) of new line underground through the entire western section of the Lake District National Park. This could also see the existing lines there being removed completely, leaving this part of the park free of pylons for the first time in 50 years. Douglas Chalmers, Chief Executive at Friends of the Lake District said, “We have fought a long and well-supported campaign to stop these giant pylons being built within the Lake District National Park and we’re delighted that the stunning landscape within the park has been spared from a line of 50 metre tall pylons. “National Grid should be congratulated for listening to public opinion and respecting the designation of national park status which affords the Lake District landscape the highest level of protection in the UK.” Kim Hagen, Senior Energy Campaigner at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said, “It's brilliant news that National Grid proposes to underground all of the planned cables through the National Park. This would be a great victory for one of our most cherished landscapes. “It would mean the character and beauty of the Lake District is protected for generations to come. Let's hope this sets new standards for the future.” National Grid is still proposing to build erect pylons along an 14 km section of the southern route running close to the national park boundary which has raised some significant concerns about their impact on some additional parts of the west coast that do not enjoy the protection afforded by national park status, but contribute to the setting of the Lake District’s landscapes. Douglas Chalmers, Chief Executive at Friends of the Lake District said, “We are still worried about areas on the west coast which fall outside of the national park boundaries where National Grid is still proposing pylons as the solution for connection. We feel that the Duddon Valley and other visually sensitive areas of the coastline south of the Moorside development site should also be considered for undergrounding. “We will be asking National Grid to extend its plans for undergrounding to protect additional areas of outstanding landscape lying within the setting of the national park.” Ruth Bradshaw, Campaign for National Parks, “We are pleased that National Grid has listened to concerns about the way in which this new line could blight the special landscape of the Lake District and is now proposing to underground 23.4km of the route through the Park. There is still some way to go before final decisions are made on this project and we will be urging National Grid to give further thought to the need to reduce the visual impact of the scheme just outside the Park boundaries. It is essential that all future decisions on this line take full account of the additional protection afforded National Parks so that people can enjoy this beautiful area without the intrusion of wires and pylons.“ National Grid’s proposals are being consulted on between 28th October 2016 and 6th January 2017. The company aims to submit an application for consent to build the new connection to the Planning Inspectorate in 2017. A decision will then be made by the Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. If consent is granted, construction work is expected to start in 2019. National Grid is currently contracted to provide NuGen with the first phase of the connection into its transmission network by 2024.
2nd October 2016 - Times and Telegraph coverage Expand We were in touch with the Times and the Telegraph regarding the coincidence of the National Grid Board meeting regarding the final route proposal and UNESCO’s World Heritage Site visit to the National Park on 4th October. This resulted in two articles, one in the Sunday Telegraph and the other in the Times on Saturday. The article in the Times does make us look like we are privy to National Grid’s proposals as our policy officer Kate Willshaw has been misquoted in the article. We are assuming that the journalist has had sight of information that National Grid is taking to its Board tomorrow. We do not have this information ourselves and have not stated that we are pleased with National Grid’s decisions (as we don’t know what they are yet!) but it is very positive to see a potential shift in National Grid concessions. Times - 1st October 2016 (Open and read as pdf) Sunday Telegraph 2nd October 2016
24th August 2016 - Pylon Consultation Postponed - Again Expand Pylon Consultation Postponed - Again National Grid has again postponed the consultation on North West Coast Connections (NWCC) which was due to start on 8th September. We have yet to be given a new date for the consultation, but the suggestion is that it may not be launched until the New Year. National Grid says the reason for postponement is that they need more time to discuss their proposals with various people and organisations. It would appear that pressure that Friends of the Lake District and other organisations have been putting on National Grid to take the National Park’s high quality landscape and environment into account means that Grid has seen how unprepared they are to deal with the impact of pylons on the National Park and candidate World Heritage Site designations of the Lake District. Friends of the Lake District therefore considers the postponement of the consultation to be good news and hopes that it means that Grid will take the time to develop undergrounding and tunnel mitigation strategies to prevent damage to the landscape of the National Park and its setting. We also hope that Grid discusses contributions towards mitigation with NuGen (the Moorside Nuclear Power Station developer) as the grid connection is only necessary because of the proposed Moorside power station. The postponement of the consultation means that the timetable for the submission of the NWCC Development Consent Order (DCO) to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) which was planned for March 2017 is very likely to have to be moved. It is hoped that this will mean that the Moorside and NWCC consultations will not run concurrently next year, which was the original plan. This would relieve concerns about the pressure which would otherwise be put on members of the public and small organisations such as Friends of the Lake District to respond to both consultations at the same time. As soon as we know more about the new consultation dates, we will let you know.
3rd August 2015 - Campaign to underground cables begins Expand 3rd August 2015 A National Grid proposal to run 400kV cables around the west of Cumbria from Carlisle in the north to Heysham in the south. In the worse-case scenario, this would mean 24km of pylons and overhead lines within the Lake District National Park and 18km of pylons and overhead lines adjacent to it running south from the site of the proposed Moorside nuclear power station adjacent to Sellafield. This would be a huge infrastructure project anywhere in the UK, but to have this length of overhead line with associated 50m tall pylons running through one of England’s most unique, important and well-loved landscapes would be damaging in the extreme to the character of the Lake District National Park. We want to see any cables through the National Park run underground as they have been in other National Parks and AONBs. We are calling on National Grid to ensure that this happens.
26th October 2015 - Author and campaigner Bill Bryson joins NWCC campaign Expand Bill Bryson, author of well known books such as Notes From A Small Island, and the President of CPRE between 2007-2012 has signed up to our campaign against taking pylons through 24km of the west of the Lake District.Bill said: "This is one of the finest landscapes on the planet. It should be cherished and nurtured, not used as a convenient shortcut for business interests." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.There is more coverage in Grough, News and Star, the Westmorland Gazette and the North West Evening Mail
23rd April 2016 - St George's Day walk Expand Controversial plans to put 24 kilometres of pylons across parts of the Lake District National Park in West Cumbria have come under fire, as supporters of the ‘Say No to Pylons in the Lake District’ campaign turned out to take part in a special walk on St George's Day. We joined forces with local campaign group ‘Power Without Pylons’ to organise the walk over Black Combe in the Duddon Valley. It served as the ideal vantage point for campaign supporters to view the route and potential impact of the 50m pylon line that National Grid plans to erect to connect the proposed Moorside nuclear power station to the UK electricity grid. The event was organised to raise public awareness of the threat and to exert pressure on National Grid to open a dialogue about underground mitigation for the line installation. National Grid recently asked environmental groups and organisations to suggest which area should be spared the blight of the 50m pylons but Kate Willshaw, our Policy Officer raises a note of caution about the request saying, “If we fall into the trap of identifying specific areas for undergrounding we run the risk of National Grid claiming to have taken public opinion on board at the planning inquiry, proposing to protect these areas alone and ultimately undermining our calls for the whole route to be put underground.” National Grid’s question to stakeholders about which 2-3km stretch of the route they would like to see undergrounded has led to concern that this may be the full extent of the undergrounding that National Grid is considering. It has prompted a recent statement from National Grid Project Manager, Robert Powell clarifying their current position, saying, “You may have seen recent media speculation about the amount of undergrounding we are considering for this project. While we haven’t completed our evaluation yet, I can confirm that the figures quoted are a long way from our current thinking.” Kate Willshaw, also added that the National Park is currently in the process of applying for World Heritage Site status on cultural and landscape grounds, which could very well have an impact on any decision made on the grid transmission technology and may mean that National Grid will have to provide significantly more undergrounding than is currently proposed in the National Park. Campaigners are taking further solace from National Grid’s recent announcement that it is to postpone the next stage of its consultation until later in the year. Its decision to delay the consultation follows recent national media coverage of the ‘Say No to Pylons in the Lake District’ campaign and may be an indication that the efforts of campaigners and an increasing level of public support and awareness are causing the energy supplier to rethink its plans. If you have trouble viewing our video on this page then please visit https://vimeo.com/164539622 to view on the Vimeo website. You can join the campaign by visiting our 'Say No to Pylons in the Lake District' campaign page You can also show your support by downloading and displaying our poster: Download it here (pdf)
17th September 2015 - Campaign featured in Times and Telegraph Expand 17th SeptemberOur campaign featured in both the Sunday Telegraph on 13th September and on the front page of the Times on 15th September.Sunday Telegraph article Times article
23rd September 2015 - Image highlighting size of new pylons Expand 23rd September 2015Our Policy Officer took some photographs of the pylons which run along the A6 at Shap. You can see how much larger in scale the 400kV pylons are compared to the 132kV pylons. The 132kV pylons are so much lower that the cables run directly underneath the larger 400kV pylon line (click on image to see full size).
1st October 2015 - Local community unhappy with National Grid Expand 1st October 2015The community at The Green near Millom held a meeting with National Grid in early September and they have shared the minutes of the meeting with us. It is clear that the local community is very unhappy with National Grid's handling of the consultation process, especially that a tunnel under the Duddon Estuary is not being considered to avoid landscape and wildlife damage on both sides of the Duddon Estuary as well as harm to local community interests. National Grid were pressed hard on why the southern Lake District was being avoided to prevent damage, but the equally valuable west of the Lake District and the Duddon Valley were not being treated in the same manner. You can read the minutes of the meeting here. Thanks to the community group of The Green and surrounds for sharing them with us.
14th October 2015 - Lake District Estates joins our campaign Expand 14th October 2015Lake District Estates a leading, family-owned Cumbrian business specialising in tourism, property and leisure best known for its Ravenglass to Eskdale Steam Railway and Ullswater 'Steamers' Lake Cruises has today signed up to the Say NO to Pylons in the Lake District campaign. They are very concerned that the enjoyment of many thousands of visitors to the world-famous Ravenglass Railway will be seriously affected by the new line of giant pylons which National Grid are proposing to string down the West Coast of Cumbria and around the pretty coastal village of Ravenglass.In a statement David Little the Chief Executive explained: "One of the main attractions for our visitors is the unspoilt beauty and the views that greet them as they travel along the line from the sea at Ravenglass to Boot at the foot of Scafell. This new line of pylons and associated cabling will be seriously in your face as you leave Ravenglass and head for the hills and when you approach the village on the return journey. The panoramic views at the start of the journey will be badly affected. We hope that National Grid will reconsider their decision to propose an on-shore, above ground route through this special landscape of the Lake District National Park.” We welcome Lake District Estates to the campaign and thank them for raising awareness of the damage that the North West Coast Connections project will cause to tourism businesses if the lines are taken overhead as pylons.
10th March 2016 - Public Consultation 6th June 2016 Expand We are still working with National Grid to persuade them to put powercables underground within and adjacent to the Lake District National Park. Many thanks to the 1010 people who contacted National Grid, their MP and Liz Truss at Defra for helping show the strength of public feeling about the damaging nature of development within the National Park, especially now it is a candidate World Heritage Site. We are also very grateful for the donations which will go towards costs for specialist and legal advice during the Examination period for the project in 2017. In December 2015, National Grid announced the postponement of the next official consultation by two months from April to June 2016. This means that the next round of public consultation on the NWCC project starts on 6th June 2016. This consultation will deal with the exact route that the powerlines will take and what technology will be used to transmit the power. This could be anything from 50m tall traditional pylons, T-pylons and “low height” pylons to undergrounding. Once the documents have been published we will be encouraging members and supporters to comment on them to ensure that the landscape of the Lake District is protected from inappropriate development. More information will be available on the website to help people to respond.