THEY are a total blot on the landscape but vital to our everyday life – huge pylons and cables strewn across some of our most beautiful countryside.

Hundreds of them criss-crossing across the New Forest like an invasion of a bizarre giant army marching over the countryside from some very early basic sci-fi movie.

Environmentalists, tourism chiefs and locals agree that it is about time these massive metal structures should be removed from some of our most important views.

Now thanks to a £500 million war chest from the National Grid they could finally be consigned to the scrap heap in certain parts of the country.

The alternatives are replacing them with smaller versions or burying them underground and next month residents in the New Forest are to get their say on the scheme.

It is vital they make their voices heard because their opinions will be used to help National Grid decide on which parts of the country to spend their cash.

No doubt they will face some stiff competition from other areas of outstanding beauty from around Britain but for us here in Hampshire there can be no more worthy a case than restoring parts of the Forest back to its historic best.

So it is up to us all to make our voices heard and persuade those with the cash to spend it on making some of our most treasured National Park landscapes even more beautiful than they already are.