TWENTY-two pylons will be coming down in Dorset over the next three months.

National Grid has started to remove the pylons and 8.8km of overhead cable to “transform views” of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Located near the villages of Martinstown and Winterbourne Abbas, National Grid's Going Underground project is one of the first schemes in the world to remove existing high-voltage electricity transmission infrastructure, which has been in place since the 1960s.

National Grid Electricity Transmission has been given dedicated funding to pursue its Visual Impact Provision projects to reduce the “visual impact” of its infrastructure in AONBs and national parks.

Bournemouth Echo:

The scheme in Dorset will be the first to be completed.

Paul Hamnett, senior project manager for National Grid, said: “Our goal has always been to enhance this beautiful landscape, and now we’re seeing the fruits of our labour with the fields we used for civil engineering works being reinstated and, ultimately, the successful removal of 8.8km of overhead cables and 22 pylons.”

Tom Munro, Dorset AONB partnership manager said: “It’s great to see the pylons finally coming down as this ground-breaking engineering project reaches completion.

“The many archaeological discoveries arising from the project have confirmed and enriched our understanding of the South Dorset Ridgeway as an ancient ceremonial landscape of national significance, with its huge number and variety of scheduled monuments from neolithic stone circles to Bronze Age barrows and Iron Age hill forts.”

Working with principal contractor Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, work on the project started in 2015 with initial technical workshops for stakeholders and public ‘drop-in’ events in the AONB.

Simon Smith, managing director for Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, said: “We’re incredibly proud of our teams’ contributions as we work together with National Grid to transform this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, leaving a lasting legacy for the residents and communities in Dorset.”

The Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers more than 40 per cent of Dorset, stretching from Lyme Regis in the west, along the coast to Poole Harbour in the east, and north to Hambledon Hill near Blandford Forum.