Windmills and Watermills: (P.1) Visual Amenity, what’s it for?

This title conjures up images of quaint rural scenes from another age. The mill race and slowly turning wheel, the sails of the wooden structures that ground corn or pumped water. Where they survive they are a much valued visual amenity.

Wind farms can evoke feelings of anger because of their impact on the landscape. For the moment I would like to argue that not everywhere which has the right wind speed is right for a wind farm. Some, away from centres of population in little visited bleak landscapes, may be seen as acceptable, but even these will be seen as a desecration of a wilderness. On a democratic level it can be argued that whilst such areas may be appreciated by a small number, this is not enough to override the need of the majority for electricity.

Already some will be beginning to wince at the thought of miles of moor land being covered by such spinning monsters. The line of argument I would like to unravel now, is purely a case for visual amenity.

Having lived at the very centre of a provincial county town, and in various London districts, as well as Liverpool 8, I remember the feelings of getting away from the noise and bustle to somewhere more peaceful, dare I say, a bit more civilized. Often it was the dream that sustained, rather than the journey to the distant hills.

I think there are few who would argue against the value the Peak District has to the people of Manchester and Sheffield and the vast conurbations which are now within easy reach due to the motorways. Ewan McColl’s song, ‘A Rambler from Manchester Way’ proudly claims, ‘ I might be a wage slave on Monday, but I am , ‘a free man on Sunday’. Granted things have changed but many of those who feel trapped in their various occupations, be it in a call centre, factory or office, sometimes for not much more that the minimum wage, can still have those feelings and a need for fresh air, and an absence of concrete. So my visual amenity argument is based on the idea that we must not deny the people in the towns the right to see from a distance a reminder that wild places do exist and where mans engineering activities have not despoiled the natural environment. If they want to visit, then so much the better.

To see the clean lines of Cats Back and Hay Bluff from the top of Birdlip Hill, before descending into the sprawl below, is evidence that the built environment is not the only choice.
Dacier