The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) wants Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) to provide additional information on the proposed Beauly to Denny powerline, including computer-generated images of how it will look, before it can give a response to the latest consultation.

At a meeting of the CNPA’s Planning Committee on Friday (13 August), members agreed to ask SSE to provide additional information including photomontages or computer graphics so that the visual impact of the proposed 400kv pylons can be fully assessed.

The Board also suggested that the SSE had been too quick to dismiss the possibility of under-grounding part of the development because of cost and technical issues. Due to the Park’s national importance, the Board agreed SSE still needs to consider under-grounding and those technicalities and costs should be carefully balanced against the Park’s nationally important landscape, which should not be blighted by huge pylons.

CNPA Convener Andrew Thin said: “The CNPA welcomes the consultation but we have issues with part of the process – we need more transparency from Scottish and Southern Energy. One example would be the availability of visual images that illustrate the full impact of the pylons.”

For a full copy of the paper presented to the board, in PDF format (Paper 4 Transmission Line consultation 2 13 Aug 04) see www.cairngorms.co.uk/planning/papers