Jamie Stone in renewed call for undersea option instead of Highland pylons
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Jamie Stone is continuing to push for an undersea option rather than have a controversial line of huge new electricity pylons cutting through the north Highland landscape.
The Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross pledged that he is "not going to give up" on a subsea alternative – whatever the cost.
He was speaking on Wednesday night at a public meeting hosted by Dunbeath/Berriedale Community Say NO to Pylons, a subgroup of Berriedale and Dunbeath Community Council. He and Maree Todd, the SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, answered questions from an audience of more than 70.
Many communities are concerned about the proposals by SSEN Transmission for a 400kV overhead line between Spittal, Loch Buidhe and Beauly in Inverness-shire, with substations at each location. If it goes ahead there will be about 167km of new pylons with an average height of 57 metres.
Mr Stone said: "It must be almost a year ago when it first reared its head and the best thing I thought I could do was to put a marker down and say publicly two things.
"Firstly, that I thought we should go for the subsea route, because the proposal is to put some of the cables under the waves. And secondly, I thought that there should be a public inquiry.
"A public inquiry might have cost Highland Council money, which they haven't got, so I was careful to say that it should be funded by either the Scottish Government or the UK government, or both."
Mr Stone said he had raised the matter recently with Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons, telling her that it is a "hot issue" and there are "grave concerns" about it.
He is seeking a meeting with Graham Stuart, UK government minister for energy security and net-zero.
"My tactic is to go for the subsea," Mr Stone said. "The argument there is that this energy issue is going to be strategic for the country for a very long time to come, and if they could lay a transatlantic cable in the 1860s between Ireland and the United States then it's not that hard to do it today – probably an awful lot easier.
"And because it's a strategic issue which is going to be there for decades to come, why not spend the money and get it right now?
"I can see that it is going to be very, very difficult for people to have these enormous pylons and cables so close."
He emphasised: "I'm going to hold out for the subsea – I'm not going to give up on that.
"They're going to put some cables below the ocean anyway, so why not put two or three of them beside each other and take it all the way down?"
Last year the UK and Scottish governments announced Inverness and Cromarty Firth as one of two green freeports to be established in Scotland, and Mr Stone said this should be seen as a vital part of the equation.
"With the Cromarty Firth Green Freeport there is great talk of hydrogen generation," he said. "The hydrogen generation is going to need very large amounts of electricity.
"If the electricity is going to be fired straight down to England, well, hang on a minute – we need to have a diversion into somewhere round about Invergordon or Alness.
"So again, the easiest thing would be to take it by subsea into the Cromarty Firth that way, run it down the coast and in.
"I'm not sure that the planning has taken into account the making of hydrogen, because we know that there are markets out there, particularly in Scandinavia and Germany, that are crying out for bulk hydrogen.
"The Cromarty Firth Port Authority tells me that there could be serious money to be made here."
Mr Stone also pointed to polls indicating the Labour Party is on course to win power at the next general election.
"We need to be aware of the politics of this," he said. "What would an incoming government have to say about the strategic approach to electricity?
"But at the end of the day, Maree and I know that it's about people, it's about your homes... It's deeply unfortunate in my opinion that the route comes so close to the A9, following all the communities along the coast. I want to hear what you're saying."
One member of the audience said: "I'm thoroughly delighted that Jamie Stone is for subseaing the whole damned thing. That takes away the pylon issue – that's the main concern, I think, of most of the communities down the line.
"We don't want pylons. If it's possible to do it subsea, why not?
"Presumably you've researched this point thoroughly and this is not only physically and technically possible, it's financially possible as well. I'm assuming all that has been done."
The man went on: "The Highlands, as far as the UK government is concerned, is just going to be an industrialised landscape that produces power to feed all the consumers in the south who will not allow this sort of development to happen on their own doorstep."
Related stories:
- Pylons will 'destroy the Highland way of life', SSEN delegation is told
- Plea for north pylon scheme to be halted over net-zero statistics
- 'People versus birds' is a factor in choice of coastal route for pylons
- Transmission upgrade will mean 'significant changes to some landscapes'
- Pylon scheme concerns raised at Dunbeath: 'It is time for communities to say enough'
- Caithness protest group heartened by public response over 'mega' pylons
- Power line across Highlands 'will support thousands of skilled jobs'
At the Dunbeath group's initial meeting in September, Communities B4 Power Companies (CB4PC) warned that “nowhere in the Highlands will be safe from industrialisation” if the pylons are allowed to go ahead.
Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport is a partnership of public and private sector organisations, aimed at ensuring the Cromarty Firth and the wider region becomes a major global hub for green energy and delivers "transformational benefits to Highland communities and the decarbonisation agenda".
