A milestone has been reached in a project to build a high voltage line carrying electricity from a new substation near Cottingham in East Yorkshire to Nottinghamshire.

The North Humber to High Marnham project is a 90km corridor running from the Birkhill Wood substation, close to Creyke Beck substation, down through North Lincolnshire into Nottinghamshire.

Birkhill Wood is being built to handle renewable electricity from three vast offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

The new power line could see as many as 270 traditional 400 kV lattice steel pylons, which stand 50 metres high, being built.

National Grid’s application for a development consent order has now been accepted by the Planning Inspectorate. The next step will see a panel appointed to consider the proposals.

Members of the public, local authorities, and affected parties can register as "interested parties" to submit written representations.

A planning inquiry will be held next year, with recommendations made to Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Miatta Fahnbulleh, who will make the final decision.

The aim is for the new power line to be up and running by 2031.

Publicly listed National Grid – a company mostly owned by institutional investors, pension funds, and asset managers – has not said how many pylons will go up.

But it has said there will be be around three pylons per kilometre on a straight section of the route.

Pylons have proved controversial with many concerned about their industrialising impact on landscapes.

The RSPB says new power lines should be strategically planned in a nature-friendly way, to avoid sensitive sites for wildlife.

Labour previously endorsed a report by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, which found underground cables were on average about 4.5 times more expensive than overhead lines.

The project forms part of the so-called ‘Great Grid Upgrade’, the largest overhaul of the electricity transmission network in generations.