TRAVEL writer Bill Bryson has launched a blistering attack on the march of electricity pylons across his beloved North Yorkshire.

Returning to his favourite part of the world for a charity event, the American author pulled no punches when he heard how the dreaded metal eyesores will soon span the landscape.

Mr Bryson, who lived in the Yorkshire Dales before moving back to America three years ago, was told about the plight of the North Yorkshire countryside before giving a sell-out charity talk in aid of Leonard Cheshire disabled people's homes, such as Alne Hall near Easingwold, at the Tempest Anderson Hall in York last night.

He said: "They are so intrusive, it is outrageous. You have a very special landscape. You look out the train window and see a quintessentially British landscape on one side, then you look out the other side and see pylons. Nothing buggers up the British landscape more than a string of pylons."

Meanwhile, the National Farmers' Union warned landowners today to prepare for construction of the pylons beginning as soon as next month, though the National Grid said it was more likely "in the next few months".

The NFU is advising farmers to have a schedule of condition prepared so there can be no dispute about the state of their land in the event of damage. The National Grid welcomed the advice.

The National Grid will erect a string of pylons between Teesside and Shipton-by-Beningbrough after environmentalists lost two public inquiries.

Mr Bryson said he had read in The Economist that it would cost just a tiny percentage of the electricity companies' profits to lay power cables underground instead of along pylon routes.

"It is absolutely disgraceful that they were not compelled to do it when they were privatised," he said.

Mr Bryson, who lived with his British wife and children in Kirkby Malham, said he missed the Dales and his local pub, a feature missing from his new home town in New Hampshire.

He revealed that he would move back to Yorkshire "tomorrow" if his wife and children were not enjoying their new lives so much.

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