The great pylon pile-on: can councils’ opposition scupper Labour’s ‘clean power’ revolution?

Pylons cross farmland owned by Jenny and Ian Pennington in Spalding, Lincolnshire. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has been warned he faces battlegrounds across the country over plans to install thousands of pylons in unspoilt rural areas to deliver a “clean power” revolution.

Council leaders and communities oppose proposals for a vast new network of pylons across large parts of several counties, including Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.