A SOUTH Cumbria anti-pylons group has accused National Grid of an "underlying tactic of obstructiveness" for "withholding" the consultation feedback of more than 8,000 residents eight months down the line.

Groups and individuals objected to National Grid's proposal to build giant pylons through the Duddon Valley towards Roosecote for the £2.8bn North West Coast Connections project. But the project - to connect the planned Moorside nuclear power station, near Sellafield, to the grid at Heysham - is in limbo while NuGen reviews Moorside.

Nopylons had put forward an alternative offshore route which would run from just south of Eskmeals at Selker Bay down to south Walney and then across to Roose. This plan avoids undergrounding in the National Park from Bootle to Silecroft, and then avoids giant pylons through the Whicham Valley, Broughton, Kirkby and then Dalton to Roose.

The campaign group has written to the Planning Inspectorate saying the utility company has "thrown the integrity" of the entire consultation exercise "overboard". The consultation ended in January. The letter reads: "For the feedback from the exercise to be still withheld after eight months and possibly not released until it is attached to the Development Consent Order application is inexcusable. This implies to the public that the honest opinions they ventured at the consultation being blatantly disregarded."

Nopylons is concerned that there will be "inadequate opportunity" within the DCO time frame for any considered response to be secured for its offshore proposal should the project restart. Nopylons says: "Early in their consultation, NGET intimated that at an early stage they would place all feedback on their website. This has not been done and we consider that the pausing of the Moorside project in no way justifies this breach of trust with the general public on the part of the promoters of the consultation."

It adds that the lack of published feedback "reflects an underlying tactic of obstructiveness which creates difficulties for alternative solutions to be advanced."

The campaign group felt National Grid was "treating the Duddon pylon problem seriously" after seeing meeting notes from the Planning Inspectorate's meeting with National Grid from January 26. That document states that: "Issues arising from consultation that had so far been identified included: consideration of alternative technology in the setting of the National Park in particular the Duddon Estuary."

A spokeswoman for National Grid said: "In May, NuGen paused its DCO application to carry out a strategic review of the Moorside project. As a result, we paused our work so we can better understand and align our programme to NuGen’s. We wrote to stakeholders to inform them of this decision and confirmed we will provide an update when we know more about the project timeline.

"Any money National Grid spends is paid for by consumers, so we want to be confident we’re going ahead and spending consumers' money only when NuGen needs it. As required by the DCO process, we will publish our consultation report, which summarises feedback and our response to it, at the time of the DCO submission."