Carol Vorderman backs fights against power pylons

Television presenter Carol Vorderman has backed a campaign to stop a 400,000-volt overhead power line being put up near her countryside home.

Vorderman, a former presenter on the Channel 4 show Countdown, is supporting the Save Our Valley (SOV) campaign in North Somerset.

The group was formed to stop plans by National Grid to install pylons across the countryside landscape of Nailsea, Backwell and Wraxall.

The new line - from Bridgwater to Avonmouth - would bring electricity from the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

Vorderman, 48, who lives nearby, wants National Grid to withdraw its plans for the pylons completely.

She told the Bristol Evening Post: "All of us who live in this beautiful part of the world have a duty to protect it for future generations so I urge everyone to get involved with Save Our Valley's campaign.

"It is ironic in the build-up to the critical summit in Copenhagen, where world leaders will attempt to put policies together to save our environment, that with this proposal, based purely on financial and not technical reasoning, National Grid are attempting to do the opposite.

"Make no mistake, if this is allowed to take place, it will have a permanent effect on this wonderful part of Somerset."

National Grid is looking at a series of options for the new line - with 160ft pylons - along two route corridors, one of which would cut through the countryside from Wraxall to Backwell and Nailsea.

Vorderman's support comes after several hundred people attended a public meeting in Nailsea to question National Grid chiefs about the proposals.