RENOWNED author Bill Bryson has signed up to a campaign to stop the construction of giant pylons through 24km of the Lake District national park.

Membership charity Friends of the Lake District is asking the public to support its ‘Say no to pylons in the Lake District’ campaign calling on National Grid to bury power cables underground rather than erecting new pylons within the national park.

The pylons form part of National Grid’s North West Coast Connections (NWCC) infrastructure project to run 400kV cables around the west of Cumbria from Carlisle in the north to Heysham in the south.

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Bill Bryson, a patron of Friends of the Lake District and author of books including‘Notes From A Small Island’, ‘A Short History Of Nearly Everything’ said: "This is one of the finest landscapes on the planet. It should be cherished and nurtured, not used as a convenient shortcut for business interests."

The author’s endorsement comes in the week that sees National Grid hosting the last in a series of 27 information events being held to show people how plans are developing for the proposed route.