SSE will use an expert on visual impact to tell the inquiry that while there could be some significant adverse effects, efforts have been made to minimise them.

I think the way the SSE is looking at this is they want to do this as cheap as possible for themselves and anything beyond that is irrelavant!

The Beauly to Denny power line should be given the go-ahead as part of Scotland's commitment to reducing climate change, MSPs have recommended. Holyrood's economy, energy and tourism committee made the call in a report on the country's energy future.

The report also recommended that the life of existing nuclear power plants should be extended. The MSPs believe that would give time to increase electricity generation from alternative sources. However, the committee did not feel that Scotland needed any new nuclear power stations.

THE site of a famous Jacobite battle could be the focus of a new conflict for Scottish ministers who have to decide to build a line of giant pylons through the country. A decision is expected by the end of the year on the £350 million proposal to upgrade the 137-mile line between Beauly in Inverness-shire and Denny in Stirlingshire.

But objectors say approval would be at odds with a Scottish Government plan announced in July to protect battlefields from encroaching development by drawing up an inventory of historic sites. Campaign group Stirling Before Pylons (SBP) wants the power line put underground on an alternative route to avoid the battlefield of Sheriffmuir.

The controversial Beauly-Denny power line, which will see 600 pylons, each 200ft high, built between Beauly, west of Inverness, to Denny, west of Falkirk, has been given the go-ahead by the Scottish Government, the Sunday Herald can reveal. The approval of the £350 million proposal will be officially announced in the “next two to three weeks”. Scottish and Southern Energy and ScottishPower applied for permission to upgrade the power line in September 2005. It prompted the biggest public inquiry since devolution and received more than 18,000 objections.

The inquiry, led by Reporter Timothy Brian, heard from almost 200 witnesses over 105 days and ended in February 2008. Its six-volume report has been sitting with ministers since February 18 this year. The power line has polarised opinion. Supporters claim it is the most important piece of the jigsaw for meeting the Scottish Government’s 2020 environmental targets, which are among the most ambitious in the world.