The move has been slammed by farmer Jon Brown who was shocked to discover a trail of wooden poles could be installed from the Walpole Marsh sub-station to help supply the mill, which will stand in the shadows of the town's power station.

He believes the 340 megawatt power station provides an obvious source of electricity without creating further disruption to the region's farms, which would see large areas of land becoming unproductive.

Mr Brown, who is based at Fairfield Farm, Tilney All Saints, told the Lynn News: "The whole thing has been handled very poorly. This is right next to the power station but they want to bring a line of pylons in from Walpole. I think it is barking mad. It will devalue the land and make life very difficult for farmers.

"This takes out grade one arable land at a time when the demand for wheat has gone through the roof. Now they want us to waste time going round more pylons."

Mr Brown farms land in the village all year round, growing crops such as wheat, sugar beet, oil seed rape and potatoes.

He believes that with current food shortages and uncertain future weather patterns installing wooden electricity poles in one of the country's most productive areas is not good use of farm land.

Fellow farmer Ian Gaunt, who grows crops including wheat and sugar beet at land in Eau Brink, added: "We have got lots of pylons going through our land as it is and now we face the prospect of another row of poles when there is a power station already there."

A spokesman for electricity providers Central Net-works said the scheme is in its early stages and a range of possible power supplies are being considered.

He added: "We have been asked to provide a power supply for the paper mill in Lynn and we are now trying to establish the best way of doing it.

"We are looking at wooden poles, rather than pylons, and the mill has to get power from somewhere and that will have to be a fairly big sub-station.

"It is a fair bet that the capacity at the power station may already be taken but we will be looking at all options before reporting back."