Conservative Group response to the National Grid’s EAST ANGLIA GREEN proposal for a pylon route

The Colchester Borough Council Conservative Group is strongly opposed to National Grid’s East Anglia Green pylon scheme across the north & west of the Borough. The Group states that:

• The proposal will have significant and lasting detrimental impact on residents, communities, landscape, environment and quality of life.
• It stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the affected communities and Parish Councils along the route of the National Grid proposal
• It demands that the development instead focuses on a sea-link solution negating the need for an overland based option.
• The route as given to us comes almost as fixed, without the necessary evidence or
  engagement in pre-consultation, hence this consultation itself is considered
  premature and misguided.
• All options moving forward should be the subject of extensive consultation before parts of the Lexden & Braiswick Ward, Rural North Ward, Marks Tey and Layer  Ward are blighted for the indefinite future by this proposal.

In addition to its statutory role, CBC has a wider leadership role in protecting and promoting the interests of the communities, residents, businesses and environment across the entire Borough, which we consider to be utmost importance.

The Group recognises the challenge of achieving net-zero as set out by Government, both to meet the ongoing energy security concerns and to recognise the need to contribute to the government’s climate change objectives, But National Grid’s East Anglia Green proposal would, by nature of its size and extent, have substantial, long-lasting lasting and seriously detrimental impacts on the residents, communities, businesses, infrastructure and environment of the north and west of Colchester.

The Group’s seeks a coordinated, off-shore approach to deliver the Nation’s electricity transmission network reinforcement objectives, minimising on-shore infrastructure and the associated impacts on the Borough communities and the wider environment. While the off-shore lifetime cost is some 2.8 times the cost of a pylon route, The Group perceives it to be highly unfair for the cheaper solution to be imposed at the cost of planning blight and reduced capital value and saleability of numerous residential properties in the north and west of the Borough.

The sheer scale and extent of this proposal as presently proposed should not be underestimated. As presented, it will have a lasting impact on Colchester for generations to come. Hence The Group fails to be satisfied that the East Anglia Green project represents the most appropriate nor a sustainable solution to the electricity network reinforcement objectives it is intended to address.

2022-06-30