ANGLESEY council has welcomed the support of Assembly members after a campaign against more pylons on the island was taken to the seat of Welsh democracy.

A long-running campaign has been underway on Anglesey against the National Grid’s proposals for a new line of overhead pylons to connect Wylfa Newydd to the main network.

But while Anglesey Council, the island’s MP and AM and several campaigners have set out their stance in favour of the lines being placed underground instead, the Grid has consistently ruled out “undergrounding” due to its extra cost – an estimated £500m.

The Grid has already unveiled plans for a controversial £100m underwater tunnel to avoid pylons across the Menai Strait, but campaigners are concerned about the possible impact on tourism and the tunnel being built so close to people’s homes.

In an event at the Senedd on Tuesday, sponsored and chaired by Anglesey AM Rhun ap Iorwerth, several campaigners who had made the 190-mile trip to Cardiff made their feelings known.

Mr ap Iorwerth said: “It was great to be able to welcome a group of campaigners from Anglesey to the Assembly to show the strength of feeling locally for the need for the Grid to reconsider their plans and put cables underground rather than build new pylons.

“We already know that all elected members on the island share this view with the majority of the people.

“Our challenge is to voice that unanimous view and make sure it is heard by the Grid.”

He added: “We have already voted in the National Assembly last year in favour of the presumption of undergrounding rather than pylons.

“And even though that vote isn’t binding, as we don’t make the decisions in this field, the Assembly has voiced its unanimous opinion on this, and it was good to see so many AMs at the meeting to support Anglesey campaigners yesterday.”

As well as having the support of five north Wales AMs representing all parties at the Senedd, campaigners also heard from Montgomeryshire AM Russell George, who had been part of a similar campaign against the Grid in his constituency.

He told them that the campaign “could be won”, but that it was important for people to come together to send a strong united message.

Cllr Carwyn Jones, Anglesey’s economic portfolio holder, welcomed the AM’s support following the authority’s established viewpoint that the cables should be buried underground.

“We very much welcome the support of all Welsh AMs and Government ministers in this campaign,” he said.

“Why should Anglesey have to suffer in order to service the UK market?”

A Grid spokesperson said: “The National Grid is a very large business at the heart of meeting huge changes in the way we produce and use energy.

“Our profits are used to raise the money needed up front for the massive investment required – £4.5bn this year alone.

“The cost is then gradually passed to customers through their electricity bills over the next 30 years or so.

“We are committed to finding the right balance between the impact of our connection projects on the landscape and the impact on customers’ bills.”