Gas Pipeline Raises New Questions
28/10/05

CLA Wales is calling on the National Grid to proceed with the greatest sensitivity as it pursues its chosen route for the proposed Milford Haven to Gloucestershire gas pipeline. The National Grid has announced that its preferred pipeline corridor runs from Felindre via Llandeilo, Brecon, and Hay on Wye to Tirley in Gloucestershire, so avoiding the Brecon Beacons National Park.

CLA Wales doesn't agree that the preferred corridor provides the 'best balance between construction difficulties, environmental impact, cost, safety and the ability to restore land quickly after pipeline installation'. Regional Director Jonathan Andrews who is based in Carmarthen said that it will go through some of the best agricultural land in Wales and he is urging National Grid to ensure that the land is restored as speedily as possible.

"We remain very concerned because this pipeline will be going through some of the best land in the Towy, Usk, and Wye Valleys", he added. "More than five hundred farmers and landowners will be affected and we have to ask whether it is right that the preferred route should disrupt good agricultural land rather than the National Park, where it would largely cross mountainous land.

"And because the working width is so great, installing the pipeline will in some cases take up a whole field. This is much more disruptive than if it was going across mountain land. There are enormous concerns about all of this.

"We accept that the National park is a sensitive area, but so are some of the very best agricultural areas which they have now chosen to cross. We are very concerned about the effect of this route on a very substantial number of landowners and farmers.

"It appears that only environmental considerations have been taken into account. The best agricultural land is affected by the new route and it runs for 184 km compared with 77 km for the original southern route".

Mr Andrews added that there were many questions which should now be raised about the compulsory purchase powers enjoyed by PLCs, such as the National Grid. They had inherited these powers from the old utilities.

"Is it actually right that now that these utilities are privatised and there are shareholders involved that they enjoy compulsory purchase powers?" he said. "They will presumably be making a profit so should they be paying the farmers compensation that is based on agricultural value or should they be offering a commercial rate? These are all new questions that we should be asking".

CLA Wales will be working to safeguard the interests of its members during the project.

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