Friends of the Lake District was the first organisation to campaign to have overhead power lines placed underground in national parks. In 1949, the Lake District planning authorities agreed to the principle that all new power lines should be placed underground except where there was no harm to the Lake District.

Thanks to our work, National Grid now has a budget for undergrounding power lines in national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, not just in the Lake District, but across England and Wales.

Today we are campaigning to change the route of new powerlines proposed for the National Grid upgrade through west and south Cumbria, to divert them away from the Lake District National Park or under the sea. Last year, we also worked hard to have 4.65km of existing overhead cables undergrounded.