Due to the high level of demand from the public at the last SVU Public Meeting, we present some ideas that might help you compose your own letter to your MP, in support of our common objectives to rid our landscape of the threat of more pylons and a sub station. We are indebted to the members of the public at that meeting for proposing many of the ideas that follow.

The kit comprises:-

Note:It is important that you send a letter in your own words for it to have maximum effect.

Your letter to your MP might sensibly raise some or all of the following points:-

★a call for your MP to support the use of electricity transmission systems that do not despoil the landscape whether it be designated to be of special value or not

★ call for your MP to support Tessa Munt MP's Private Members Bill to update the 1989 Electricity Act by voting for it- it will help pave the way for underground electricity transmission

★a call for your MP to press for the revision of the Energy National Policy Statements such that they advocate the use of environmentally preferable electricity transmission methods

★a call to use whole life costs of transmission systems when considering the economics of transmission technologies

★a call for the fiscal value of the detriment to the environment caused by pylons to inform decisions to use them

★a call for your MP to press for an end to sham public consultation processes and for legislation to be enacted to force real consultation with the public that truly impacts final infrastructure planning decisions

★a call for your MP to ensure that the economics of electricity transmission is looked at from a broad economic perspective that includes impacts to other industries and not just from the narrow point of view of the electricity industry

★a call to make the removal of all redundant pylons a legal obligation on all electricity transmission and distribution companies

★a call for your MP to press for the Bramford to Twinstead Connection to be put underground, all the way, under corridor 2

Sample Letter to a local MP

Please don’t just copy it - use your own words for greatest effect.

Dear _____________ MP

Electricity Transmission Systems for the Future

I was pleased and heartened to read/hear of your support for the campaign within your constituency to free our beautiful rural landscape from the threat of yet more electricity pylons.

I am appalled at the prospect of a new wave of electricity pylons being built across our countryside, blighting it for generations. I wholeheartedly support the move to renewably generated electricity but know that environmentally preferable technology exists that can affordably connect these generators to the grid. These contemporary yet proven technologies do not despoil the landscape in the way pylons do.

Pylons damage the prospect of the rural communities from building part of the local economy on our area's natural beauty. I understand that within our county, £billions are produced annually by tourist visits to the countryside and that this part of our economy should not be compromised in any way by fast and dirty solutions to energy industry problems. The natural beauty of the landscape is in any case an important contributor to our sense of wellbeing and quality of life.

I therefore call on you to support myself along with all of your constituents who are seeking to avoid this prospective landscape blighting bysupporting Tessa Munt MP's Private Members Bill that seeks to update the Electricity Act of 1989 such that transmission systems other than those involving pylons are considered and that unobtrusiveness and environmental impact become a priority considerations, not just up front cost. This Bill receives its Second Reading in November.

I further request that you press the Secretary of State, Chris Huhne to ensure that Energy National Policy and the energy regulatory regime are revised to deliver an energy system that embraces renewable energy without blighting the landscape, that looks at whole life costs for energy infrastructure and not simply capital costs, and above all, recognises that the cost to underground all currently proposed new on land transmission systems would be less than £5 per year, per household, a mere spit in the ocean when compared to recent energy price rises and is therefore highly affordable. As you will realise, the up front costs can easily be funded through long term utility bonds of the form recently brought forward by National Grid, a financial instrument that the City's institutions would welcome, these financial products being seen to help bring stability to the markets.

I request that you reply to this letter indicating your intentions with respect to supporting the Private Members Bill and on pressing for the revision of National Policy and energy industry regulation as outlined above.

Yours sincerely,

etc.

Email Addresses for relevant MPs

Braintree Constituency MP Brooks Newmark MP, Email: newmarkb@parliament.uk

South Suffolk MP and Chair of the Energy Select Committee, Tim Yeo MP, Email:timyeomp@parliament.uk

Secretary of State and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), Chris Huhne MP, Email:chris@chrishuhne.org.uk orchris.huhne@decc.gsi.gov.uk

Minister of State for Energy, Charles Hendry MP, Email:hendryc@parliament.uk

You might like to copy your letter to Tessa Munt MP for Wells, author of the Private Members Bill, Email:tessa.munt.mp@parliament.uk

Any letter to an MP can be sent by conventional post to them at: The House of Commons,London, SW1A OAA