Campaigners are urging the public to respond to a consultation on controversial plans to route 50 metre high pylons through the Suffolk countryside before the consultation ends on Friday.

Power firm National Grid has been seeking opinions on plans to place the structures on a 110-mile route between Norwich and Tilbury as part of the so-called Great Grid Upgrade, which have sparked concerns from campaign groups about damage to the countryside.

Instead, action groups such as Essex Suffolk Norfolk Pylons have called for an offshore grid to be set up to reduce the amount of cabling passing over land.

READ MORE: Suffolk pylon campaigners accuse Government of 'bribes'

The group's founder, Rosie Pearson, said: "People must make their feelings known to National Grid before the weekend.

"There are cheaper and less damaging ways to bring offshore wind power from the North Sea to where it is needed."

In May, this newspaper reported how Dr Andy Tickle, an independent planning and campaign consultant, had called for a halt to the plans for the pylons and overhead lines in a report entitled "Greening the Great Grid Upgrade".

READ MORE: Suffolk County Council could back halt for pylon plans

In the report, he called for the scheme to be halted to enable various offshore and underground solutions to be investigated, which were proposed by "expert bodies and campaign groups".

The report was welcomed by campaigners, including Suffolk Energy Action Solutions (SEAS), which campaigns against the adverse effects of offshore wind farms on the countryside and environment.

READ MORE: CPRE report into Norwich to Tilbury pylons calls for halt

Rosie PearsonRosie Pearson (Image: Contributed)

The pylons plan is linked to a number of other energy infrastructure projects affecting the Suffolk countryside, including Sea Link, connecting Suffolk and Kent and Lionlink, between the UK and Netherlands, which will bring ashore power produced by North Sea wind farms.

These schemes are set to be routed through a substation at Friston and converter station at Saxmundham. 

National Grid has said the project is essential to ensure energy can continue to be supplied throughout East Anglia.

On Wednesday, MP Adrian Ramsay, who represents the Waveney Valley constituency on the Suffolk-Norfolk border, was urged to "show some leadership" over pylons by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a heated exchange in the House of Commons.

Mr Ramsay had asked if the UK would host a UN conference on nature, but Sir Keir replied by focusing on the MP's concerns about pylons, accusing him of opposing "vital clean energy infrastructure in his own constituency".