September 26, 2013
Wales

Windfarm campaigner draws comfort from his dad’s success

Published by: Dominic Robertson | County Times | 25 September 2013 | www.countytimes.co.uk/

A campaigner fighting plans for a controversial power line is drawing comfort from his dad’s successes.

Jonathan Wilkinson, chairman of Montgomeryshire Against Pylons, has been leading a battle against National Grid over proposals for pylons to be built along the Meifod Valley to connect a proposed substation at Cefn Coch in Mid Wales with the grid at Lower Frankton.

But he revealed that his father faced a similar struggle in the 1960s when the family farm, just outside Meifod, was threatened by plans to create dams along the Vyrnwy valley to provide drinking water.

His father led a campaign against the proposals and the dams were never built.

Mr Wilkinson, whose family has owned the farm since 1954, said: “The dams would have devastated the area much as these pylons will.

“But I have drawn comfort from my dad’s success.

“They fought that and won and there are similarities with our campaign so it makes me more hopeful.”

In the end the dams were not installed for financial reasons according to Mr Wilkinson, a problem he believes could be an issue in the power line fight.

“I think it will be funding or politics that will decide this one.

“They’ve got to prove the plans will deliver.”

If given the green light, the power line would be used to transfer energy from a string of windfarms, which could be built in Mid Wales, to the National Grid but there is currently a public inquiry being held in Welshpool to scrutinise the proposals.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/09/26/windfarm-campaigner-draws-comfort-from-his-dads-success/