Lincolnshire County Council investigating cost of pylons
A freedom of information request has been submitted by the council
Last updated 16th Dec 2024
Lincolnshire County Council has submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to National Grid, asking the company to justify its claims that building pylons across the county is cheaper than installing an underground cable.
It has almost been a year since National Grid first announced its plan to build an 87-mile line of electricity pylons stretching from Grimsby to Walpole in Norfolk. This has led to threats of legal action and a petition from concerned locals, which has surpassed 8,000 signatures.
The company previously outlined that the cost for an onshore underground alternative to the pylons is approximately £6.5 billion, while an offshore subsea cable would cost £4.3 billion. Both options are significantly more expensive than the current pylon plan, which is estimated at £1 billion.
Councillor Martin Hill (Conservative), leader of Lincolnshire County Council, previously wrote to the firm, alongside representatives from county councils in Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, who are battling similar pylon plans stretching from Norwich to Tilbury, requesting evidence to support these claims, as he did not believe them. However, he says he never heard back from them.
An FOI request has since been submitted, with a response expected this week. Coun Hill still feels the situation “doesn’t make sense”.
“We have asked them how they arrived at these figures so we can offer a sensible report, but so far they have refused,” he said, following a full council meeting today (Friday, December 13).
He added: “It surely can’t be right that they want to put all of the pylons up, but they’re not prepared to tell us what the justification is for not putting the cables underneath the seabed.”
Executive members threatened legal action over the plans during discussions in March. They argued that not only did it seem National Grid was not giving enough consideration to alternatives, but that the proposed pylons would threaten Lincolnshire’s green and pleasant land, as well as potentially impact farming and holiday spots.
Coun Hill noted that a decision on the proposal is likely to be made in summer 2025. He vowed that, should the council still feel the same, considering county council elections are being held in May, they would continue to challenge it.
“We can’t challenge a decision until one is made, so I think when that time comes, if the council still holds that viewpoint—because there will be a new council by then—we will certainly be challenging it,” he added.
A spokesperson for National Grid insisted that the Grimsby to Walpole project is urgently needed to meet the government’s decarbonisation ambitions.
They responded: “We shared published costs for the Grimsby to Walpole project with stakeholders and at public consultation, earlier this year. At approximately £6.5bn for an underground cable alternative and £4.3bn for an offshore subsea cable, both are at significantly greater cost than the approximate £1bn cost of the onshore option we are proposing.
“We are confident that the processes we follow to identify and assess potential strategic options and cost are robust, and the most appropriate.
“This has been tried and tested through numerous previous projects, the formal examination process, and ultimately the decision will be made by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.”