Pension committee accused of of kicking pylon issue into the long grass

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

A public sector pension fund is delaying a request to put pressure on companies linked to a controversial pylon plan at a time when landowners on the proposed pylon route were receiving letters demanding access to their land, a councillor has claimed.

Carmarthenshire councillor Alun Lenny made the comment at a meeting of the Dyfed Pension Fund pension board, which helps oversee the £3 billion-plus fund in West Wales.

However, his frustration was aimed not at the board but the pension fund committee which decides on investment policy and monitors overall performance. “I just hope the report comes to us before the pylons are up,” said Cllr Lenny.

Withhold investment

The board agreed in May this year to ask the committee to look into whether the pension fund might be able to withdraw or withhold investment in Bute Energy companies because a Bute Energy subsidiary – Green GEN Cymru – wants to link wind farms in Mid Wales via pylons south through Carmarthenshire so the electricity could be connected to the grid. There is a lot of opposition to the proposed pylons and calls have been made for Green GEN Cymru to bury the cables underground.

The pension fund committee couldn’t discuss the request at the first opportunity, in June, as it was only a couple of weeks before the general election. When the committee met next, in September, it was anxious about the implications of any divestment and decided to ask officers to prepare a detailed response for future discussion.

Speaking at the pension board meeting on October 29, Cllr Lenny said the request hadn’t been for the committee to disinvest as such but to see if the pension fund could explore the situation with Green GEN Cymru/Bute Energy or its backers and put some pressure on them about the pylon plans.

Cllr Lenny said it seemed as if the committee didn’t want to have the discussion and instead “kick it into the long grass”. He was, he said, “rather frustrated”.

Substation

Green GEN Cymru wants to build two sets of pylons from planned wind farms in Mid and West Wales to a substation near Carmarthen as Mid and West Wales lacks grid infrastructure. The proposed Towy-Usk route, as it is known, is further advanced than the Towy-Teifi route although Green GEN Cymru has not decided on a final route yet.

Cllr Lenny said the stakes have risen for people affected by the Towy-Usk plan. “By now the order has gone out to landowners not requesting but demanding access to their land, so things have moved on substantially,” he said.

Green GEN Cymru has greed to bury a 5.5km section of the proposed 97km length following a public consultation. It has also told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it is now separate to Bute Energy.

The pension fund committee meets next on November 11, and board members were told the issue would be discussed and then reported back to them