More than 2,200 objections have been lodged against plans to build a 120-mile powerline from the Highlands to Aberdeenshire.
The significant number marks the closure of the public consultation into proposals by SSEN Transmission to create a chain of pylons between Beauly and Peterhead.
Towers of around 180ft, about double the height of the air traffic control tower at Aberdeen Airport, are expected to be built as part of the project.
The project involves building a new 400kV overhead line connection between Beauly, Blackhillock, New Deer and Peterhead.
Under the plans, three new substations would be built, with convertor stations also constructed at either end of the line.
Politicians say the high number of objections, totalling 2,246, sends the Scottish Government a “unanimous message of community rejection” against a “tsunami of industrial infrastructure” across rural Scotland.
The development forms part of SSEN’s £22bn Pathway to 2030 programme that also includes an additional 350 pylons between Kintore in Aberdeenshire, and Tealing in Angus, which alone has attracted 10,600 objections.
Scottish Conservative North East MSP Douglas Lumsden said: “The significant number of objections sends a unanimous message to the Scottish Government that these plans between Beauly and Peterhead are not welcome.
“It’s absolutely clear that communities across the North and North East are deeply concerned that our countryside is being turned into industrial jungles.
“The overdevelopment involved with this application, along with SSEN’s Kintore to Tealing route, threatens to desecrate our countryside, causing misery and financial hardship to homeowners.
“That is why the Scottish Government must take heed of these objections and listen to the concerns of residents by pausing this project until a proper energy strategy is put in place.”
Buckie sheep farmer and Scottish Conservative shadow rural secretary, Tim Eagle MSP, said: “The thousands of objections highlight the level of frustration and distress at the tsunami of industrial infrastructure in the pipeline across our rural areas.
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“From homes being devalued and the impact on people’s health, to the loss of prime agricultural land and the monstrous blight on our landscape, these proposals must be stopped.
“As a farmer myself, food security and the protection of our farmland has never been more important during these uncertain times.
“This mass industrialisation threatens our way of life, which is why these plans should be thrown out to protect rural Scotland.”
