Infrastructure providers need to consider the visual impact of their operations

Catherine Bennett is right to draw attention to a lack of a vision for our beautiful landscapes from any of our political parties (“It’s not just these new pylons that blight our land”, Comment).

She is a little harsh, however, on the National Grid for its recent attempts to reduce the visual impact of its transmission lines, including the new T-pylon. As our former president Bill Bryson has said, much more needs to be done on this, particularly in the planning of new transmission infrastructure. Significant progress has been achieved recently, following lobbying by CPRE and others, to reduce the impact of transmission lines in some of our finest landscapes as part of Ofgem’s price control review. Work is now well underway by National Grid and others, which is expected to lead to the burying of significant stretches of pylons in a number of national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty in the next few years.

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