Film star Ralph Fiennes has spoken on a BBC show about how he is a regular visitor to Suffolk and his fears plans to bring wind farm cables onshore will have a "devastating negative impact" on communities in the county.
The Ipswich-born star of the James Bond series and Harry Potter movies appeared on BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg to discuss his support for the campaign against energy firm ScottishPower Renewables' (SPR) plans to bring the cables through the Suffolk countryside.
Currently, power lines are set to reach land at Aldeburgh and connect to a substation at Friston and converter station at Saxmundham, but campaign groups, including Suffolk Energy Action Solutions (SEAS), would like an offshore grid to be created instead.
READ MORE: Suffolk coast 'soaked in my consciousness,' film star says
This alternative solution would bring the cables onshore at a brownfield site at Bradwell in Essex.
Mr Fiennes, 61, said: "We believe that this will have a devastating negative impact on local communities, farming, fishing, tourism, when it can be done better, which is offshore hubs.
"This is a long-term legacy for our country. This is the infrastructure going into the future, it might be more expensive in the short, in the mid-term, we're convinced it's not. But this is really vital that we get this right.
READ MORE: East Suffolk Council calls for 'offshore solutions'
"And the solution, the implementation of this structure is destructive and I've been looking, I've been excited to look at what the Belgians and the Danes are doing by these offshore infrastructures, which are then ecologically friendly and they take their cabling onshore to a brownfield site, which is critical.
"This is a greenfield site proposal."
In January, the EADT revealed that he had created a four minute video - called Coast - in which he talked about how the Suffolk coast was 'soaked into my consciousness' and how the beaches at Southwold, Covehithe, Walberswick and Dunwich formed 'my earliest memories'.
READ MORE: Aldeburgh news
While walking along the sand dunes at Covehithe, the actor spoke about how his father had been a tenant farmer at Wangford, but warned the cables plans would damage 'many acres of heathland and wetland irreversibly'.
SPR has previously defended the plans and said it would help in the fight against climate change, while the firm was trying to protect the environment and minimise the onshore impacts of the plans.
A spokesperson for National Grid said: "There is no fully offshore solution to connect offshore wind to the grid in any country and building a new network to connect cheaper, cleaner electricity is the only way to bring energy bills down long term.
"Our role is to future proof the grid for years to come by carefully developing proposals with environmental and biodiversity considerations that represent value for money for all consumers, facilitating the transition to a clean, fair and affordable energy future."
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