Your views on the new power line?

Power firm Scottish and Southern Energy said that 60% of the 400,000 volt power line would be built on a route adjacent to the existing lower voltage line, which it will replace.

The new route follows 18 months of consultations and complaints from campaigners about the environmental and health impact of the transmission line.

Your comments:

Why oh why has this line not been placed as far away from the maximum amount of people as possible? It will now travel close to the village of Kinbuck and they have paid not one iota of attention to the large number of local protesters who made a fair and balanced case against the proposed route.
Stuart Hepburn, community councillor for Ashfield and Kinbuck

These pylons will be with us for another 40 years or more. That means 40 years of hideous metalwork on our landscape. Would this not be the right time to bury the cables, once and for all? Admittedly burying cables is costly and requires a lot of land to be dug up. But in two years time the land would recover; the pylons will always be there.
Jim, Braco

Burying a large high voltage cable would probably do more damage to the environment, and leave a larger scar than any overhead route, especially if it has to be dug up for repairs. As I also want cheap power they have made the right choice.
S Richards, Aberdeen

They should put the lines underground. If they did this more often the cost wouldn't be as high and with an innovative solution could save money with upkeep costs. Anyway we should not be putting a price on this beautiful land of ours.
Jonathan Kelk, Dalry, Scotland

The Highlands are a major resource for the Scottish economy in terms of tourism and similarly tourism is a major source of employment for the Highlands as a region. Pylons are only part of a wider debate about what the costs of delivering on the UK's promises on renewables might be and who should bear them. The Scottish Executive should be leading this debate and opening up the big picture to the public, not sitting back whilst individual components (a wind farm here, a wind farm there, a pylon route somewhere else) are picked off piecemeal by organisations whose sole interest is to have the components they champion implemented. The debate should be wide-ranging, open and thorough - there is too much at stake for it to be otherwise - and right now there are far too many unanswered questions.
Andrew Castell, Tomich, Inverness-shire

This does not affect me directly. However, it is another blight on the Scottish landscape which is not needed when we are already competing with more exotic destinations for tourists. It is an utter disgrace that this option should even be considered and those advocating such should be absolutely ashamed ot themselves. This is simply a case of profit before the country.
Tim Purdon, Kilmarnock Scotland

Can't power lines be buried in scenic areas ? I refuse to believe in this day and age that pylons are the only solution to transmitting electricity through out Scotland
David Simpson, Edinburgh, Scotland

I believe we are being used as a power station for England. We are losing the amenity of our countryside one of Scotland's outstanding assets, to provide power which is going to be consumed elsewhere. We are become more like the Americans every day with their economic colonialism: "We don't have enough energy let's invade somewhere that does." This would be much more acceptable if we were able to provide electricty locally for local consumption and job creation instead of concentrating jobs wealth and development in the south east of England. With profits the power companies are making it would be easy for them to put these cables under ground. There are pipelines running from St Fergus to Mossmarran and Newcastle under ground.
Jim Scott, Kinross

When is the Scottish Executive going to put together a cohesive plan for our energy needs? Yet again, these huge pylons will be marching across some of our beautiful and wilderness countryside (and isn't the route convenient to support more mainland wind farms?) to give power to south of the border. Will Scots see cheaper electricity to compensate for the loss of their land and threats to wildlife and livelihoods? No, they'll be stuck with paying the subsidies for renewables for which they receive no benefit. I hope the BBC opens this debate out on their main Have Your Say section on the news website - it surely is justified given Scottish and Southern supply base, where the power will serve and the origins of many of our visitors.
Jenny, Argyll & Bute

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