RISHI Sunak could be dragged into the Essex Pylons saga after MP Sir Bernard Jenkin told campaigners he is pushing for a meeting with the Prime Minister in the coming weeks “to talk pylons”.

More than 100 people gathered at West Bergholt village hall on Friday as the Essex Suffolk Norfolk Pylons (ESNP) reinforced its opposition to National Grid’s plans to build a 113-mile network of pylons from Norwich to Tilbury.

Part of the route will run through Washbrook, Copdock and East Bergholt before running underground past Dedham and Langham.

%image('17513294', type="article-full", alt="Opposed – campaigners at West Bergholt Village hall don placards to show their opposition to the pylon plans")

National Grid has previously said the onshore grid it is proposing would be cheaper and carry greater capacity than an offshore grid, but that message has not resonated with members of the public, with a petition set up in opposition to the onshore plans having gained more than 27,000 signatures.

Now, Harwich MP Sir Bernard Jenkin has said he will take the case to Number 10 as he looks to put more pressure on National Grid to ditch the plans.

%image('Campaigning – Sara Naylor, Darius Laws, Rosie Pearson, Sir Bernard Jenkin were at Friday's meeting', type="article-full", alt="Campaigning – Sara Naylor, Darius Laws, Rosie Pearson, Sir Bernard Jenkin were at Friday's meeting")%image('17513331', type="article-full", alt="Campaigning – Sara Naylor, Darius Laws, Rosie Pearson, Sir Bernard Jenkin were at Friday's meeting")

At Friday's meeting, he said: "We have been asking the Government, National Grid and OFGEM to ensure that viable alternatives to 50-metre-high pylons, spread across 110 miles of prime East Anglian countryside, are properly considered.

"It is so obvious that this scheme should go offshore but there is simply no strategic plan – which is why we are in this mess.

"If the only way to save the planet was to put pylons across this area we would have to accede to it because saving the planet and meeting global warming commitments are more important than anything else.

%image('17512029', type="article-full", alt="Alternatives – Bernard Jenkin criticised National Grid for not offering a strategic plan")

“But the point about this pylons proposal is that it is not being measured against better alternatives.”

A spokesman for National Grid reiterated an offshore option would be less efficient.

He said: “We have assessed an equivalent offshore option; however, this would only carry a third of the capacity of an overhead line – we would need to build three subsea cables and associated onshore infrastructure to deliver the same capacity as the overhead line, at significant extra cost to consumers, and that would not meet the requirements placed on us."