THE Government will investigate plans to put a row of huge pylons through farmland in Hadleigh after a 13-year-old girl wrote to the Prime Minister telling him she was frightened they could damage her family’s health.

Polly Bennett, who lives at Ramsey Farm just off Pond Hall Road, has received a letter back from David Cameron assuring her that he has passed her note to the Department for Energy and Climate Change for further consideration.

The Ipswich High School for Girls student wrote the letter after energy company National Grid announced it intended to build a row of 50-metre high pylons that would cut through the Bennett family’s farm.

Polly told Mr Cameron she was very worried about having pylons so close to her home because of her family, and her animals, adding: “Somebody told me that pylons could give people cancer. I don’t know if it is true, but it could be a possibility, and this frightens me.”

Speaking from the farm in view of where the pylons are scheduled to be placed, Polly told the EADT: “I wrote it because I don’t want to wake up every morning and see pylons out of my window and I know that you can possibly get sick from living near them.

“I didn’t know of anyone else who would be able to help me except the Prime Minister and that’s why I wrote to him.

She added: “I wasn’t really expecting to get a reply because I know he is a very busy man, but I was really delighted when he wrote back and told me he had given my letter to one of his departments. Hopefully he will be able to get me some answers.”

Polly’s father, John Bennett, has met with National Grid on numerous occasions and has allowed several ecological surveys to be carried out on his land. The farmland is home to rare species including great crested newts, barn owls, and bats, and it contains a protected area of woodland.

There are currently two lines of pylons running through land on the outskirts of Hadleigh, but National Grid plans to take out the row of smaller 18-metre-high pylons and re-route them through the Bennetts’ land – replacing them with 50-metre-high structures.

Mr Bennett has implored National Grid to either swap the smaller pylons for bigger versions along their current route or to place all of the cables underground, but so far to no avail.

He added: “I was really surprised when Polly told me she had written to David Cameron because she did it entirely off her own bat and it came from the heart. I am proud of what she has done – particularly as she received a reply.”

For more on our Stop the Pylons campaign, click on the link above right.