CONTROVERSIAL plans to put 24 kilometres of pylons across parts of the Lake District National Park have come under fire.

Supporters of the ‘Say No to Pylons in the Lake District’ campaign turned out to take part in a special St George's Day walk on Saturday.

Membership organisation Friends of the Lake District joined forces with local campaign group ‘Power Without Pylons’ to organise the walk over Black Combe in the Duddon Valley.

It served as the ideal vantage point for campaign supporters to view the route and potential impact of the 50-metre high pylon line that National Grid plans to erect to connect the proposed Moorside nuclear power station in west Cumbria to the UK electricity grid.

The event was organised to raise public awareness of the threat and to exert pressure on National Grid to open a dialogue about underground mitigation for the line installation.

National Grid recently asked environmental groups and organisations to suggest which area should be spared the blight of the pylons.

But Dr Kate Willshaw, Policy Officer at Friends of the Lake District, raised a note of caution about the request and said: “If we fall into the trap of identifying specific areas for under-grounding we run the risk of National Grid claiming to have taken public opinion on board at the planning inquiry, proposing to protect these areas alone and ultimately undermining our calls for the whole route to be put underground.”

She added that the National Park is also in the process of applying for World Heritage Site status on cultural and landscape grounds, which could very well have an impact on any decision made on the grid transmission technology and may force National Gird to underground right the way through the National Park.

Campaigners are taking further solace from National Grid’s recent announcement that it is to postpone the next stage of its consultation until later in the year. Its decision to delay the consultation follows recent national media coverage of the ‘Say No to Pylons in the Lake District’ campaign.

Friends of the Lake District say this may be an indication that the efforts of campaigners and an increasing level of public support and awareness are causing the energy supplier to rethink its plans.

A sokesman for the National Grid said: "We have not yet made a final decision on how and where the new connection will be built within the Lake District National Park.

"However, we are continuing our discussions with key bodies about minimising the impact of our proposals and this will include considering placing sections of the connection underground over and above the two kilometres currently being speculated about in a number of newspaper articles.

"We will share our detailed proposals for the connection as part of a formal public consultation that will take place later this year when we’ll be asking people for their views on the exact path the new connection will take along its entire route, the equipment used to build it and the methods which can be used to reduce its impact.

"All feedback received during this consultation will help shape our thinking as we develop our final plans to submit to the Planning Inspectorate in 2017.

"When building connections for generators, we strive to avoid designated landscapes. Where this is not possible, we work closely with stakeholders and communities and carry out consultations to develop a proposal which achieves the best possible balance between protecting the environment and ensuring everyone has an affordable electricity supply.

"We fully recognise the importance of the National Park and for more than five years have been working together with local authorities from across Cumbria and Lancashire, including the Lake District National Park Authority, as well as environmental, business and community organisations to develop our proposals."