Pylons plan is 'an absolute disaster' - Farage

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said a new 114 mile (180km) network of pylons from Norwich to Tilbury would be "an absolute disaster".

Farage told the BBC: "The whole thing is a nonsense, I think we are despoiling our landscapes and seascapes for a form of energy that is utterly unreliable."

National Grid said the new line of pylons was the only viable way to carry electricity from new wind farms off the east coast that were coming online in 2030.

A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said: "Securing Britain's clean energy future will require improving infrastructure in a cost-effective way to get renewable electricity on the grid."

The line of pylons was originally planned to help the last Conservative government hit its target of decarbonising electricity by 2035.

The Labour government is now aiming to hit the target by 2030.

Some people living along the route have said it would have a huge impact on the landscape. There are calls for the new power lines to be built underground or at sea.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told the BBC in December she backed the underground option as "the best sustainable option for the future".

But Tom McGarry from National Grid said: "If it was cheaper and quicker to deliver it off-shore, then that's what we would be proposing, but it is not. We have to deliver this by 2030."

Nigel Farage argued the UK should focus on expanding nuclear energy: "That is the future. It gives you continuous base load power twenty-four hours a day."

A spokesperson for DESNZ added: "Without this infrastructure, we will never deliver clean power for the British people.

"It is important we take people with us and are considering ways to ensure communities who live near new clean energy infrastructure can see the benefits of this."

Nigel Farage said he supported plans to build a new lower Thames Crossing between Tilbury and Gravesend via a tunnel and new motorway style road.

"The Dartford Crossing is still for many, many hours every week a complete living nightmare for people that live in the area. It just doesn't work there has to be another crossing."

The proposed crossing would be built in Reform UK MP James McMurdock's South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency. McMurdock has expressed doubts over the plans.

Farage admitted "he and I don't quite see this the same way".

The government is exploring options with the private sector to fund the £8.3bn construction.

This week the government is set to announce whether Essex will be part of the first wave of local democracy reorganisation with fewer all purpose councils and a directly elected mayor.

Nigel Farage told the BBC: "Breaking Essex up into three, four or five [councils] I think damages the sense of a county identity. The more rural, small town district councils will finish up being dominated by an agenda that is for the bigger cities.

"I am very reticent about these changes. I would personally prefer to keep things as it is."

He called for there to be a public debate on the proposals and for this May's county council elections not to be cancelled.

Kevin Bentley, the Conservative leader of the council, has said there were "practical and financial reasons" for cancelling the local elections.

Elections could be held next year for an Essex mayor and the new councils in 2027.

Thurrock, Southend and Essex County Council have agreed to work on devolution plans.

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