City and Suburban
By JOHN BETJEM AN IET me open with good news if you have not dalready heard it. The Oxfordshire County Council, which stood out against the proposals of the Central Electricity Authority to put pylons as high as Nelson's Column through some of its most charming territory in the upper Thames valley and the Cotswolds, has been informed that the proposed supergrid line from Derbyshire to Hampshire is to be abandoned. The word used by the CEA is 'postponed,' but their sense of power must not be taken from them. This means that the Berkshire Downs agd Warwickshire are also reprieved. The reason given for the aban- donment of the supergrid is that the establish- ment of nuclear power stations in the south of England makes it no longer necessary.
When a question was asked in the House of Commons on May 6 about the action the Govern- ment was taking 'to avoid destruction of the natural beauty of the coast line when planning the siting of new atomic power stations' we were led to believe that a lot of trouble was being taken. Is it? Or rather was it? The Eighth Report of the Central Electricity Authority (1955-56) states that 'A nation-wide survey of the possible sites was neither necessary nor possible in the time available; the requirements clearly pointed to the south of England,' where There are heavy demands for electricity and little coal, and to estuaries on the coast for large volumes of cool- ing water.' If the Authority had not the time to make a nation-wide survey, how can it possibly have decided what are the places which will do least harm to English scenery?
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