Campaigners against a proposed huge new electricity substation on land near Halstead are in talks with councils to launch the next stage of their protest.

In September last year National Grid announced a site on the A131, between Wickham St Paul and Twinstead, as its preferred option for a new substation as part of a major regional upgrade project.

In November, it was announced that their Bramford to Twinstead Connection Project will be put on hold, because the existing transmission system is available until 2021.

It had planned to send the connection live in 2017 but has now delayed until 2020.

But Twinstead resident David Holland, of the Stour Valley Underground protest group, said that two-and-a-half acre site in Wickham St Paul, on a field between Butler’s Wood and Waldegrave Wood, should not be built upon because it goes against national planning policies.

He said: “The Government’s national planning policy framework states that they should not build on the best and most versatile farmland, which this is.

“At the moment we are making sure that all the local authorities are compliant with the national planning policy so we can come up with a document against the plans in the next round of consultations."

See this week's Halstead Gazette for the full story.