Electricity poles facing the chop

MILLIONS of pounds is to be spent in the Peak District National Park removing unsightly electricity poles.

And Saddleworth could benefit from some of the £2 million grant from Ofgem, the power industry regulator.

The park’s Dark Peak area covers parts of Saddleworth moorland but not the villages.

The Friends of the Peak District, the section of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) which covers the region, is asking people to suggest which poles could be removed, possibly by burying the power cables underground instead.

Andy Tickle, from the Friends of the Peak District, explained: “In the past couple of years this scheme has gone ahead in the Mam Tor area, but now we will continue to go through the area with a fine-tooth comb and we very much hope the scheme will be extended for another five years, from 2010 to 2015.”

He stressed it was not about removing pylons, which are owned by National Grid, but poles carrying electricity cables.

He added: “Unfortunately, Ofgem has not taken the same view over pylons, which at the moment are too expensive to remove.”