Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has rejected calls for part of a power line that passes through some of Scotland’s most spectacular landscape to be buried underground.
Mr Ewing said burying part of the Beauly to Denny power line in the Stirling area “simply cannot be justified”.
The minister said the cost of putting nine miles of the line underground would be £263million.
He argued that the work could delay the completion of the “essential” upgrading of the line by two to three years.
However, his decision was branded a “slap in the face for the people of Stirling” by Tory Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser.
The Conservative accused Mr Ewing of putting “ScottishPower before Scottish people”, and said even the SNP group on Stirling Council wants the new line to run under the ground.
The Scottish Government gave the go-ahead to plans to build the 137-mile power line from the Highlands to central Scotland in January 2010, arguing it was necessary to help unlock the country’s green energy potential.
Yesterday Mr Ewing announced he had approved ScottishPower Transmission’s plans to mitigate the visual impact of the line in the Stirling area. The proposals “offer an important level of mitigation to the landscape”.
But he added that he had asked for additional measures, such as placing four miles of the existing overhead line between Fallin and Glenbervie underground. This will cost £12.9million, a “much more efficient use of money”.
Mr Ewing said he has also asked for wider environmental and landscape improvements to be carried out in the area as part of the project to develop the Central Scotland Green Network of woodland, walking and cycling routes, green space and waterways.
Announcing his decision to MSPs at Holyrood, Mr Ewing stressed the upgrading of the Beauly to Denny line was “essential for us to our reach renewables targets and for ensuring energy security”.
He said: “Let’s be clear: the Beauly-Denny overhead line upgrade is the most important grid infrastructure upgrade in several generations. There is a pressing need to get on with this development.”
He insisted he had been “mindful of the views of many in Stirling that the new line should be undergrounded”.
But Mr Ewing added that undergrounding was usually only done in “extraordinary circumstances” and he had “concluded that these exceptional circumstances do not apply to Stirling”.
He said the cost of such a measure, which he said ranged from £28.7million for a section of line one mile long to £263million for the nine-mile long section in question.
“I do not find it appropriate to seek approval from Ofgem for spending up to £263million of electricity consumers’ money, especially in a time of such economic difficulty.
“Given the issues and the limited environmental benefits undergrounding would bring, it simply cannot be justified.”
Mr Ewing also said that a “timely Beauly to Denny upgrade is critical to the future deployment of renewables and the wider program of grid reinforcement required for Scotland to realise its enormous renewable potential”.
But the best estimates suggested that requiring part of the line to be placed underground could delay the project by two to three years.
He said: “Having regard to the cost of the alternatives, the technical problems associated with it, and the limited environmental benefits it would offer, the case made for undergrounding has not been justified.”
But Mr Fraser argued that the additional mitigation measures “amount to very little, given the huge visual impact of the new pylons close to the Ochils and the Wallace Monument”.
He said: “These proposals faced widespread and united public opposition in the Stirling area.” Every political group on Stirling Council, including the SNP, were unanimous in their view that the line should be undergrounded in the Stirling area and that nothing less would do.
“What a tragedy that the SNP Government had ridden roughshod over not just public opinion but the views of their own council group.”
Mr Fraser argued that the cost of placing part of the line underground was “minimal” in comparison with the “billions we are spending on supporting renewable energy projects”.
He asked the minister: “What is the point of public consultation if at every turn, his Government will favour the multinational company over local people; if they put Scottish Power before Scottish people?”
Meanwhile Labour infrastructure spokeswoman Rhoda Grant said there was “no material difference” to the original decision to give the line consent, which was made almost two years ago.
“Many communities and campaigners will be angry they were given false hope,” she said.
“It’s difficult to see what they could have said or done to change the outcome today.”
Similarly, Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur asked Mr Ewing if he believed “false expectations” that significant undergrounding was ever likely had been unfairly raised in the affected communities.
He said there would “now be a strong suspicion, notably in the Stirling area, that the delay in coming forward with this clear statement had more to do with the timing of last May’s election than any uncertainty over the costs or indeed viability of significant undergrounding”.
However, Mr Ewing said the communities had been consulted “seriously and positively and at length”.
He added: “That process has resulted, as I have argued, in very substantial mitigation measures which would not otherwise have arisen.”
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