FARMERS campaigning against a controversial overhead power line are celebrating after forcing pylon workers off their land.

National Grid Company workers and Balfour Beatty surveyors were scheduled to carry out a survey on Wednesday at Station Farm, Alne, near Easingwold, for the Lackenby to Shipton overhead power line. The work was to position a pylon tower in the corner of one of the farm fields.

The NGC group, led by Guy Bradbury and accompanied by two North Yorkshire police officers, crossed a locked gate to get into the field, despite being refused entry by landowners John and Richard Gill.

The surveyors were met with strong vocal opposition from a party of more than 20 protesters including the Gills, their neighbours and members of anti-pylon group Revolt.

Members asked Mr Bradbury how he could sleep at night and Mike O'Carroll, leader of Revolt, branded NGC's actions as "unscrupulous" and called for the team to leave.

Mr Bradbury ordered his team to abandon the work and accused the protesters of obstructing his legal right to carry out the survey.

Farmer John Gill, 47, said he was pleased to have seen off the NGC team. "It is what we wanted," he said. "I didn't think they would even come over the gate."

Mr Gill said he had feared he would be arrested but said he had the right to refuse the team entry.

It was the latest attempt by NGC to carry out the survey in what Mr Gill said had been a long-running saga.

"I have chased them off that field five times before now," he said. "On the map they have sent me they have plotted a line of trees in the field. But I have never let them on my land so I don't know how have they managed to map it out unless they have been trespassing."

The deadlock results from a technicality in the ruling that allows NGC a necessary wayleave to access farmland in order to build and maintain the pylons. But the wayleave agreement is unclear as to whether NGC workers can also carry out surveys on farmland without the owner's permission.

Prof O'Carroll said: "NGC adopted a confrontational approach and did not behave reasonably. Guy Bradbury claimed they were being obstructed in their legal work.

"I argued that their work was not legal and their claim was a matter of opinion."

A spokesman for NGC said: "The survey was to establish the position of a pylon on that land.

"We construed that we were being obstructed and we withdrew at that point. We very much regret incidents of this type and in the vast majority of cases we manage to reach an agreement on access with landowners.

"We will try to negotiate with the landowner. If this fails, regretfully we may have to apply for a court injunction."

The pylon project came under fire from landowners on a further two occasions in the same morning.

A Balfour Beatty truck working for NGC was spotted in a field on the Knayton to Brawith road, near Thirsk. Prof O'Carroll claimed this was in breach of a "dry weather" planning condition that banned road vehicles from entering fields after heavy rainfall.

He also claimed that, half an hour later, a large Balfour Beatty wagon was seen crossing Cotcliffe Bridge near Borrowby, Thirsk, again in contravention of planning conditions.

Maurice Cann, head of development control at Hambleton District Council, said: "There is a condition about dry weather working and we have come to an agreement on what wet weather actually means.

"In order to overcome this, National Grid was going to roll out a temporary surface for the vehicles.

"Nobody has told us of any potential breach of the conditions, so until we are informed we cannot do anything about it."