Show the world
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But the Beauly/Denny landscape group, which includes the John Muir Trust and the Ramblers’ Association, is unhappy that alternatives to the 212ft pylons have not been properly examined.
Perth-based David MacLehose, from campaigners Scotland Before Pylons, said sufficient consideration had not been given to other options.
He said: “The European Union and Commission are pushing hard for member states to provide undergrounding for high voltage electricity communication where possible.
“I really think this is an opportunity to say here is an extremely important national infrastructure project and we want to show the world that we care about our landscape issues and we really want to put forward the very best example.”
The inquiry, which started in Perth in February, was set up after SSE submitted plans to erect new pylons along the route from Beauly, near Inverness, to Denny, near Falkirk.
Although it is due to end shortly, it may be at least another year before Scottish ministers make a decision on the £320m development.
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) hopes to install 600 pylons in a line from Beauly to Denny.
A public inquiry into the proposals is due to end on Thursday.
However, campaigners claim vital questions – such as whether a sub-sea cable would be a better alternative – have not been addressed.
SSE has said that the new 137-mile power line is vital to the future of “green energy”.
The line would allow renewable energy from proposed wind and wave projects in the north to be transmitted to the major population centres of central Scotland.
141 Blog: . MSP warning on power line dangers
Evidence about the health risks of high voltage power lines is growing day by day, an MSP has claimed.
Labour backbencher Dr Richard Simpson compared growing evidence about the impact of power lines to the increase in evidence on passive smoking.
He made the case as members of a Holyrood committee considered a petition calling for regulations to deal with high voltage power lines.
The committee is meeting in response to plans for a new 137-mile power line.
Dr Simpson, an MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, said when he had called for a ban on smoking back in 2001, the evidence on the dangers of second-hand cigarette smoke was “not all that great”.
But he added: “Within a few years this parliament passed a ban on smoking.
“The situation with transmission lines is almost identical, in that the evidence is growing literally day by day.”
Dr Simpson said that an inquiry by a cross-party group of MPs had stated children living within 200 metres of such power lines were at increased risk of leukaemia.
And he claimed there was increasing evidence that there was also a link to Alzheimer’s disease.
