Pylons to stay in Ouse Valley

Robert Cheesman, a member of the South Downs Campaign executive, said: 'These power lines are a blot on the landscape. This was a golden opportunity to enhance this much loved valley and the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) has thrown that chance away. It is deeply disappointing. We believe that the DTI has failed in its legal duty to have regard to the purposes for which the South Downs were designated. In coming to its decision, the DTI appears to have only looked at the current visual impact and not at the need to enhance the area.'

He added: 'It is also disconcerting that local authorities who have signed up publicly to the policies in the Management Plan, urging for these sorts of intrusive lines to be placed underground, stood by and did nothing.'

A bid to remove an electricity pylon from an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at Southerham was also rejected.

The pylon was erected in 1974 on the understanding that it would be a temporary diversion of underground cabling during the construction of the A27.

Local MP Norman Baker said: 'It is extremely disappointing that, after more than three decades of deliberating, the Government have refused to accept their moral duty to right the wrongs of the past and underground the electricity cables at Southerham.'