Powerlines closer than I thought

This morning I received in the post a much clearer map of the powerline corridors across the County that are being proposed by National Grid. Additional capacity is needed between Twinstead, to the south of Sudbury, and Brantham near Ipswich to support potential new power stations on the coast.

The edges of the fourth route do seem to come closer to the Ward than I had realised. (The scale was not entirely clear on the more schematic map that I had seen when I wrote the previous post on this matter.) The edge of Little Waldingfield and Upsher and Brook Green could be affected by the equipment, although much would depend on its exact siting within the fairly large band.

At first sight it seems illogical to blight countryside that is unspoilt when there is already a defined corridor of pylons already in existence elsewhere. It would also seems strange for a company to choose a route which appears to be a lot longer than necessary. High voltage powerlines are not cheap so it would be interesting to know what the logic behind a much longer, and more expensive, route would actually be.

A consultation period is now starting. Let us hope that the main purpose of Route Four is to allow National Grid to 'consult' and then to discard it. Route Three, which goes through Kersey, also looks unsuitable to me.

I will be making appropriate representations opposing the scheme in due course.