More underground cabling should be considered for power lines planned across south Suffolk, Babergh councillors have said.

The cabinets at Babergh and Mid Suffolk district councils last week agreed to submit their submissions to the consultation on National Grid Electricity Transmission's Bramford to Twinstead power grid project.

It proposes to bolster 400kV lines, and NGET has committed to putting cables underground through the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Stour Valley to lessen the impact on those landscape areas.

But opinions were voiced at last week's Babergh cabinet meeting for the firm to explore whether the overground power lines planned between Leavenheath and Little Cornard could also be put underground.

Independent councillor Clive Arthey, Babergh's deputy council leader and cabinet member for planning, said: "What we are trying to do is minimise the impact, so that is something that undergrounding has less of an impact than pylons above the ground.

"And if we can get the sealing end compounds as far away from the AONB boundary as possible that's an advantage, and if we can reduce the area that has any power lines at all – whether they are underground or overground – by going around the AONB then that is advantage as well."

It was acknowledged however that even underground cables would leave a scarring on the landscape, but Cllr Arthey said it was the "least worst option".

In the two councils' draft written representation, another matter raised surrounded "concerns about the timing and consideration of the project and its impact on and interaction with other large scale energy projects in the region, particularly having regard to the need for adequate assessment of potential cumulative impacts".

Elsewhere, council leader John Ward has asked for NGET to consider whether the planned sealing end compound in Polstead could be relocated to the area of the old Layham quarry where more natural screening and better road connections would be available.

NGET has agreed to underground cables through the Stour Valley and AONB in response to concerns over those landscapes, and has already once agreed to move the Polstead sealing end compound following feedback on the original location.

The two cabinets unanimously agreed their responses last week.

Suffolk County Council earlier this month said it would reserve judgement until more details were available on key aspects, but agreed to raise a few matters around impacts on employment and the vital tourism industry in the area, as well as specific areas around Hintlesham Hall.