Location York

Some overhead electricity cables may be relocated underground in national parks. Ofgem, Britain’s gas and electricity supplier, has allotted a share of £5.5m to be used by our regional supply company, CE Electric.

The money is to be shared by seven national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty while the scheme runs through to 2010. Sarah Housden, the North York Moors National Park Authority's senior area planning officer, said: "Undergrounding high-voltage lines is expensive and CE Electric considers that the best value for money will be achieved by undergrounding low-voltage lines – 11,000kv and under."


Ms Housden worries that there will not be enough time to initiate talks with parish councils on the initial bid and said: "It is important that schemes are selected in a consistent
way but there is a need to identify schemes relatively quickly to meet the initial January deadline in order that the authority takes advantage of the funding available.
"There are clearly numerous locations across the park that would benefit from having overhead lines undergrounded.

"It is important to establish some criteria against which schemes can be selected."

Ms Housden is trying to get across the idea that underground cables should be implemented in areas where overhead poles and cables are having an adverse effect on conservation area centres. Examples of such places are: Robin Hood’s Bay, Swainby, Faceby and Thornton-le-Dale.

An earlier study produced results indicating that Hutton Buscel, Aislaby and Sneaton are villages in North Yorkshire where above ground power cables are having adverse effects on their natural beauty and ambience.