MORE than 600 people have backed the EADT's campaign against plans to build new pylons across the Suffolk countryside.

Elliot Furniss

MORE than 600 people have backed the EADT's campaign against plans to build new pylons across the Suffolk countryside.

People from across the region have put pen to paper or logged on to our website to pledge their support for the Stop the Pylons campaign.

The vast majority have urged National Grid, which wants to build the pylons across 30km of land between Bramford, near Ipswich, and Twinstead, near Sudbury, to bury the cables underground.

Mr and Mrs K King, from Chattisham, near Ipswich, said the pylons were “eyesores” and any more would destroy the countryside.

They said: “Pylons must go underground - they blight the countryside.”

P Walker, from Layham, said: “How very selfish and uncaring can National Grid become? The pylons must be stopped and the lines put underground.”

Esme Millen, from Bramford, said the pylons would be “a blot” on the landscape and must not be built.

She said: “The monstrous pylons should be abolished and cables put underground. Swans are constantly being killed in this area. Also pylons are a blot on the landscape.”

Mr R Moye also urged National Grid to rethink its plans, saying: “Cost should not be the deciding factor. Keep the cables underground - out of site, out of mind. Keep the generators where the power is needed.”

But Jim Street, National Grid's senior project manager, said cost was just one of several factors that led to it favouring pylons over underground lines.

He said: “We are a monopoly regulated by the government through Ofgem and we have to show that we are operating an economic operation.

“Overhead lines are the most effective way of transmitting electricity at high voltages.”

He said underground cables were 12 to 17 times more expensive and much less reliable than pylons and it often proved harder to detect faults with and repair them.

He added: “We are consulting on overhead route corridor options at the moment. There are four (options) out there and we are very, very keen to get feedback from the local community and take account of this in a balanced way.

“Somehow as a nation we have got to find a way of making up this shortfall of power coming up over the next few years.”

The pylons could follow one of four possible routes across the countryside, either alongside or replacing existing pylons to the south of Hadleigh or following two alternative paths across land to the north of the town.

The second of 19 public events organised by National Grid to allow residents to examine the plans will take place on Saturday November 7 between 12noon and 9pm at Hadleigh Town Hall.

For details of all the meetings, visit www.eadt.co.uk.