National Grid East Anglia GREEN Project

Cotton Parish Council has submitted a response to the non-statutory consultation; a copy can be viewed here.

If you would like printed copies of any material please email parishclerk@cotton-pc.gov.uk with your name, address and the material required.

BULLET POINTS FOR COTTON RESIDENTS TO SAY NO TO 50M HIGH PYLONS

Many strong points were made at the recent meeting in the Village Hall and since then many residents have attended the National Grid exhibitions locally.   A few points below cover a variety of our concerns. Please feel free to use them along with your own and respond to the Consultation by 16 June and also write to our MP Dan Poulter  daniel.poulter.mp@parliament.uk

The consultation offers no alternatives to the approach of 180km of overhead cabling and 50m high pylons which will blight the countryside.  This is disingenuous and misleading. 

There are alternatives and running the majority of the cables offshore should be the preferred way, causing the least harm to large parts of Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex.

The Grid’s proposal is the cheapest and easiest for them. But it’s unacceptable to use technology from the middle of the last century, which is highly intrusive and environmentally damaging, as a means of addressing our future energy needs ?

‘Lip service’ is paid to the huge potential damage to our environment and bio-diversity; 

to the impact on historic houses and churches (St Andrew’s is Grade 1 Listed); to the loss of amenity such as footpaths and meadows (such as Carters Meadow); to the loss of highly productive farming land for our food.  All these aspects are significant in Cotton.​​​​​

Cotton is situated in one of the highest parts of Suffolk, on high plateau clay-lands.  Mitigation, such as tree planting, to reduce the visual impact of these vast pylons was described by National Grid staff when asked as “challenging”.  Pylons on this scale would be highly visible from significant distances.

This project is a National Infrastructure Project which means ultimately the Government will decide.

So, keeping pressure on our local and national government representatives is very important. Green energy is vitall to our future needs but not at such an unacceptable cost to the environment.

From National Grid:

The UK has set a clear ambition for our country to be a global leader in clean energy. The Government has set a commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and an ambition to connect 40 GW of offshore wind by 2030 – enough energy to power every home in the country. 

To achieve this, offshore wind is being developed at scale and around 60% of the current offshore wind projects will come ashore along the East Coast. 

Couple this with new nuclear generation proposed at Sizewell C and greater interconnection with countries across the North Sea, we expect to see a significant increase in the level of renewable and low carbon electricity generation connecting in East Anglia. 

While our existing high voltage electricity network in East Anglia has been sufficient until today, it doesn’t have the capability needed to reliably and securely transport all the energy that will be connected by 2030 while working to the required standards. 

In the first half of this decade, we are investing significantly in upgrading the existing network, but that still won’t deliver the capability that is needed. We need to reinforce the region’s network and to increase the network capability to carry the clean green energy that is proposed. 

The East Anglia Green Energy Enablement (GREEN) project is a proposal to build a new high voltage network reinforcement between Norwich, Bramford and Tilbury.  

It will play a vital role in delivering electricity efficiently, reliably, and safely and will support the UK’s move to reduce carbon emissions. 

Our public consultation runs from Thursday 21 April to Thursday 16 June 2022.

This is an important opportunity for you to have your say on our early proposals for East Anglia GREEN which will reinforce the high voltage electricity transmission network from Norwich Main substation in Norfolk to Bramford substation in Suffolk, on to Tilbury substation in Essex as well as a proposed connection substation to connect new offshore wind generation. 

We want to hear the views of local people. Knowing what matters to you, matters to us, so please find out more about our proposals and provide your feedback.

Throughout the consultation we are holding a series of face to face and online events. This provides the opportunity to present information, and members of the project team will be available to talk through our proposals and answer any questions. Paper copied of the newsletter and feedback form are available at a number of information points along the route for collection. 

Visit one of our face to face public information events being held at the following locations across the proposed route to find out more and speak to experts within the team.

Online webinars 

Attend an online webinar where we will present details of the proposals followed by an open Q&A. We are holding webinars that provide a general overview of the proposals as well as webinars that cover each section of the route in more detail.

Please click on the webinar you want to attend to register your details. Information on how to access this will then be sent to you.