Locals fume over plans to build giant power cables through celeb-packed village

24 September 2023 , 17:31

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Residents in Walberswick have had their say over the plans (Image: Getty Images)

Controversial plans to run giant power cables through a celeb-packed seaside village which could become an "industrial wasteland" have been slammed.

Remote Walberswick on the Suffolk coast near trendy Southwold has been earmarked by energy giants National Grid for a huge five-acre site. The plan - to bring ashore power generated by a huge windfarm - would also involve trenches the width of a motorway, furious locals claim.

Residents in the tiny community, which has a population of just 350, include film-maker Richard Curtis and his wife broadcaster Emma Freud. Actor Bill Nighy, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse author Charlie Mackesy and writer Jan Etherington also live there and she said: "Not any of the areas they are proposing are suitable, they are all Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and it is a threat what could happen to our beautiful Suffolk coast."

Bill Nighy calls the little village home (Getty Images)

Residents of Walberswick are concerned and in a statement said: "This designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty will become an industrial wasteland if the proposals are allowed to carve motorway size trenches through the eco systems. The four year building process would decimate the village by turning it into a construction site.

"We will be ignoring the needs of a younger generation who will grow up in an industrial hub, hating what we are doing to their world. We will be dismissing the concerns of small businesses, many dependent on nature tourism, the area's main economy, and we'll witness the destruction to the area's beach, wildlife and ancient ecosystems."

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Walberswick has been ranked among the most beautiful seaside villages in the UK. The Telegraph described the area as the "magical light of the Suffolk coast", highlighting its stunning sand dunes and beach. They added: "The wooden bridge leading from the picturesque village of Walberswick to the beach is always crammed with children clutching crabbing lines and plastic buckets." Other locations included Blakeney in Norfolk, Beer in Devon and Portloe in Cornwall.

Sam Elliott-Gibbs