Film star Ralph Fiennes is backing a campaign against plans to bring cables from offshore wind farms across Suffolk and has created a four-minute video in support.
In the short video, called Coast, the actor, who was born in Ipswich, speaks about growing up in the county and how the beaches at Southwold, Walberswick, Dunwich and Covehithe formed his 'earliest memories' and were 'soaked into my consciousness'.
However, he warns the plans to bring the cables onshore at Aldeburgh would destroy 'many acres of heathland and wetland irreversibly'.
READ MORE: East Suffolk Council calls for 'offshore solutions'
Mr Fiennes, who played Gareth Mallory, known as 'M' in the James Bond series, was filmed walking along the sand dunes at Covehithe and spoke about how his father was a tenant farmer at Wangford as black and white footage of the young Ralph on the beach played in the background.
The actor, who played amateur archaeologist Basil Brown in the story of the excavation of the burial ship at Sutton Hoo in the Netflix film The Dig, also calls for an offshore grid to be created to avoid having to bring cables onshore and said neighbouring European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, were pursuing this solution.
The film is being launched alongside a petition by campaigners Suffolk Energy Action Solutions (SEAS) against energy and gas firm National Grid's plans to bring the cables onshore, which would include a sub-station at Friston and converter station at Saxmundham.
READ MORE: National Grid consider study on Suffolk cables proposals
SEAS is concerned about the damage to ecology and destruction of wildlife habitats, corridors and lowland heathland and is calling for the energy to be routed via pre-industrialised brownfield sites instead.
Fiona Gilmore, founder of SEAS, said: “Ralph Fiennes very generously offered to write and make this film for us. It is a compelling appeal to all of us to think more creatively, more thoughtfully about HOW we deliver our energy.
"There is a beauty about the film and a simple profundity that we should all think again about how we value the priceless and the elements of nature that cannot protest for themselves.
"Our only course of action is to launch a petition, to protest and reach out to our rural communities across the UK to stand together and challenge what cannot make sense to anyone who knows what is at stake."
READ MORE: Suffolk news
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