NATIONAL Grid has confirmed today that it will not be erecting 50-metre high pylons through the Lake District National Park to carry electricity generated from a new power station.

Instead the National Grid’s North West Coast Connections project will run 400kV cables around the west of Cumbria from Carlisle in the north to Heysham in the south to provide connections from the proposed Moorside power station to the electricity grid.

It plans to look at putting 23.4km (14.5 miles) of new line underground through the entire western section of the Lake District National Park. This could also see the existing lines there being removed completely, leaving this part of the park free of pylons for the first time in 50 years.

Landscape protection charity Friends of the Lake District has been running a national campaign to stop the construction of pylons within the Lake District and has welcomed the news.

Douglas Chalmers, Chief Executive at Friends of the Lake District said: “We have fought a long and well-supported campaign to stop these giant pylons being built within the Lake District National Park and we’re delighted that the stunning landscape within the park has been spared from a line of 50 metre tall pylons.

“National Grid should be congratulated for listening to public opinion and respecting the designation of national park status which affords the Lake District landscape the highest level of protection in the UK.”