PEOPLE protesting over a pylons scheme are planning a bonfire party - but the effigy they burn on it will not be that of Guy Fawkes.

Instead, campaigners plan to make their feelings known by burning the likeness of one of those people they feel are responsible for the controversial North Yorkshire power line.

Members of Revolt - Rural England Versus Overhead Line Transmission - plan to hold their bonfire party near the A19 Easingwold bypass, on Saturday, November 2, at 7.30pm.

And they are asking supporters to vote for the character they would prefer to see burnt in effigy.

Front runners for the dubious honour include Lord Wakeham, who agreed to the Teesside power station which will supply the line; Michael Heseltine, who gave the provisional consent to the line in 1994; and Margaret Beckett, who gave actual consent in 1998.

Other possibilities are John Battle, the energy minister advising Mrs Beckett; David Jefferies, chairman of the National Grid in the 1990s; James Ross, chairman of the National Grid after the 1998 consent decision; and Roger Irwin, NG Chief Executive and long-serving director.

Revolt leader Mike O'Carroll said yesterday: "What a tough contest this is. There are so many really well-qualified and deserving contenders for the most despised person riding roughshod over the public and despoiling the environment for their own selfish purposes.

"This is an occasion for the public to show their outrage at the unnecessary and wasteful power line and the unjust treatment meted out to the public."