Over two days recently at Cardiff High court, a Judicial Review took place, brought by landowners in a landmark case against a pylon company, with the claimants challenging the alleged behaviour of officers representing Green GEN Cymru, citing them for acting unlawfully and with disregard for biosecurity whilst trying to access private land.

It’s a highly emotional issue. No one wants to see new pylons erected over the beautiful natural landscape of mid and west Wales. And no one wants to see the rights of landowners trampled into the ground. Indeed, driving across the region and noting the abundance of signs against the pylons speaks to the depth of opposition.

While the case is being reviewed by the High Court, it would be remiss of this publication not to at least lend written support through this page for the plight of those fighting Green GEN Cymru.

The claimants say they were “intimidated and threatened” by the company’s officers when trying to access their land for ecological and environmental surveys, ahead of building three proposed electricity pylon routes that bisect Wales and cross over into England.

Lead claimant Natalie Barstow alleged the officers used “aggressive behaviour” to access land without consent, describing it as an abuse of the statutory powers used to access land prior to Compulsory Purchase Orders. Barstow, who runs a farm and eco-campsite in mid-Wales, only found out that surveyors had accessed a stream on her land because of wildlife camera footage, the court heard.

Barstow was said to be “on tenterhooks” after several interactions with officers representing Green GEN.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales and the Land Justice Coalition Ltd are also claimants in the case and are challenging whether the use of notices to allow access to land ahead of possible Compulsory Purchase Orders by Green GEN Cymru was lawful.

A CPO allows some organisations to forcibly acquire land or property to make way for infrastructure projects deemed to be in the public interest.

But are these lines in the public interest?

These lines, if needed, should be buried.

Along with turbines and planned windfarms, these pylons will turn our Welsh landscape into an 21st Century industrial power plant.