Power games and the battle for beauty

The Government’s plan to cover the countryside in ugly pylons with seemingly no regard for aesthetics must be vigorously challenged

Simon Jenkins

AT first sight, the prospect of 1,000 miles of giant pylons covering the length and breadth of Britain beggars belief. It would be the most intrusive invasion of the nation’s rural landscape since the Second World War. It should be subject to a searching audit and challenge. The pylons, in their tens of thousands, are 400kV colossi the height of Nelson’s Column. They are to link the wind turbines of Scotland and the North Sea with London and the South-East. They will march south to the Lake District, cross Snowdonia as far as the Cambrian Mountains and spread from the Lincolnshire Wolds through East Anglia to the Thames. Occasionally, the cables will be buried, as in bits of the Peak District and Snowdonia, but the generality of Britain’s countryside is seen…

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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 19, 2025

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