Court row pylons switched on

The controversial power line crosses miles of countryside

A controversial 50-mile line of electricity pylons running through the North Yorkshire countryside has finally been switched on, it has emerged.

As National Grid threw the switch it symbolised an end to more than a decade of attempts by campaigners to scupper the plans.

The line, which stretches from Leconby in Teesside to Shipton near York, has been the subject of protests, public inquiries and court action since 1992.

But the final section of the £230m power line through the Vale of York was turned on last Friday, National Grid has confirmed.

Legal battle

In May, farmer Rosalind Craven, of Huby, near Easingwold, North Yorkshire, lost an appeal to prevent some of the 216 pylons from being built on her land.

As part of her 11-year fight, she had tried to overturn an injunction banning her from stopping construction workers getting onto her land.

But the Appeal Court gave the electricity company permission to enter the 61-year-old widow's land and work on the three 46m tall pylons.