Sparks fly again over the Beauly-Denny power line
Plans to bury cables in Callander reignites anger
Old wounds over the controversial Beauly-Denny power line project were reopened this week.
It happened after one of the companies involved in the construction of the line, Scottish and Southern Energy Networks, announced last week a £233,500 project to bury a mile and half of cable at Callander.
However, both SSEN and partners Scottish Power rejected calls for the Beauly-Denny line to be ‘undergrounded’ even in areas such as the Ochils and near the Wallace Monument.
SSEN plan to use a new installation method – aimed at minimising ground disturbance – for the work near Callander Holiday Park and under the river bed at Invertrossachs Road.
SSEN has set aside £1.5 million to ‘underground’ 56 miles of overhead lines running through Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Parks and National Scenic areas.
And the company has invited communities to nominate areas for the underground power line project. SSEN move was welcomed by Friends of the Ochils who, with other groups such as Stirling Against Pylons and Scottish Natural Heritage, campaigned against running the Beauly-Denny powerline through the Ochils.
Many campaigners felt running the line overground, within a half a mile of the Wallace Monument, blighted the view from one of Scotland’s most famous and iconic landmarks.
Construction of the Beauly-Denny powerline was completed at the end of 2015 at a cost of £820m. It carries electricity from windfarms and other renewable energy schemes in the north to consumers in the south.
Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission, part of SSEN, completed the 124-mile stretch, from Beauly to Braco while Scottish Power Energy Networks constructed the 12-mile section of the line from the Wharry Burn across Stirling Council area to a new sub-station in Denny.
There were no fewer than 20,000 objections to the scheme, many from people concerned about the impact of the landscape of the 615 pylons, measuring between 137ft and 213ft that were used to carry cables. During the planning process, SSEN said cables beneath ground were more prone to faults and took, on average much longer to repair than overhead lines.
Laying the cables also involved “motorway-width disturbance” and the movement of considerable volumes of soil.
Scottish Power also rejected calls to run cables beneath ground in the Stirling area, a stance backed by the Scottish Government which instead proposed a £5m package of environmental measures.
Dr Nicki Baker ex-chair of Friends of the Ochils said:“We can only be glad that SSEN are engaged in getting rid of electricity pylons and putting cabling underground in areas such as Callander, where the scenery is of great importance.
“It’s what we always argued should have happened, in relation to the Beauly-Denny power line; and we will always regret that our arguments to avoid installing that line’s giant pylons and very thick overhead wires through the Ochil Hills Area of Great Landscape Value in Stirling were rejected by the Scottish Government. The very ugly and visually intrusive results are there for all to see and to regret, not just now but for many decades to come.
“Even so, we believe some good has eventually come out of all the efforts made by people not only in the Stirling area, but also right up the line, to fight against the Beauly-Denny line being put overland and overhead – as well as accepting the need to remove limited lengths of lower voltage power lines from scenic areas, as in Callander.
“The National Grid company in England now undertakes to consider putting even extra high-voltage power lines underground, where they impact on areas of important scenery or too close to houses.
“In October 2016, they agreed to put some 24 kilometres of new line underground through the western edges of the Lake District National Park, to the huge relief of all who care about such beautiful and precious landscapes.
“What a shame the Scottish Government failed to make a similar decision, in relation to the BeaulyDenny power line in the Ochil Hills.”