Maintenance men barred from pylons

GLOUCESTERSHIRE FARMER, John Herdman, a staunch member of the Cotswold Hunt, is preparing to make his stand against the ban on field sports.

He has become the first landowner in the West Country to ban maintenance men from entering his premises to service the six giant electricity pylons that stretch over his 120ha (300-acre) Cotswold farmland.

Mr Herdman, who rides twice a week with the hunt, has run Scrubditch Farm, North Cerney, near Cirencester, for over 50 years and he is determined not to make things easy for the government to implement a ban on hunting.

Mr Herdman hopes the owners of other farms in the area with pylons on their land will join him.

He reckons that could put three miles of cables and pylons beyond the reach of engineers.

“They visit my farm at least twice a year to carry out service work, so our stance could be a vital weapon in our battle to save our age old way of life,” said Mr Herdman.

But a spokesman for the body responsible for the line”s upkeep, National Grid, urged farmers not to get involved.

“We value our relationships with landowners and would urge people not to take actions that would make our duties difficult to discharge, or that would jeopardise the safety of our staff and public.”