§ Mr. G. Johnson Smithasked the Minister of Power how many proposals for overhead pylon lines have been put forward by the Central Electricity Generating Board and regional boards since 1962 to date; how many have been approved; how many turned down; how many are still under consideration; and how many public inquiries have been instituted during the last five years.
§ Mr. FreesonFrom April, 1962 to March, 1968, 45,637 applications were186W received from the generating and area boards for consent to erect overhead lines, including pylon and pole mounted lines, and 46,429 consents were issued. Consents exceed applications because sometimes a line is considered piecemeal and more than one consent issued per application.
Most of the applications and consents were for short lengths of low voltage lines to which there were no planning objections.
Consent was refused for the whole of the line in 10 cases and for part of the line in 9 cases. In 25 cases consent was withheld pending investigation of alternative routes. There are 225 applications currently under consideration. During the last 5 years 44 public inquiries have been held.