A Sunday walk can tell us something a planning document struggles to capture. These are places worth seeing before decisions reshape them.
By Shane Oxer | Hope to Save Our Countryside
Put the kettle on, find your walking boots and take a look at the photographs. Sunday is a good time to step away from the headlines and remember what the countryside gives us: space, fresh air and somewhere to slow down.
I have been to Walshaw Moor and Hope Moor, and close to Scout Moor. Going to see these places has helped shape my questions about Britain’s energy policy. The photographs in this article come from my walks in the Walshaw Moor landscape.
At walking pace, the details start to matter. You notice the ground beneath your boots, the water below the hills and the way a stone wall follows the land. That is where I want to begin this Sunday — before asking you to support our petition for a full national assessment.
Walshaw Moor, at walking pace
On my Walshaw walk I made my way from the reservoirs towards higher ground around Withins Height, through heather, grass and bog. The ground changed beneath my feet. The views opened out as I climbed, with water catching the light below and the moors stretching away.
That experience stayed with me. In my earlier account of the walk, I described the scale of the place and the small details within it. A photograph records one moment; being there lets you feel how the paths, walls, water and open ground belong together.
There are old buildings and walls here, reminders of people who worked this land before us. There is wildlife too. During the walk I had brief glimpses of a bird and a stocky, hare-like animal before they disappeared from view. The moor was full of things worth noticing.
That is part of the pleasure of a countryside walk. You can leave home with one destination in mind and find yourself stopping because something else catches your eye. The place has a value that goes beyond the boundary of a proposed development.
Look beyond the turbine
From higher ground I could see existing turbines on distant Pennine ridges. I wrote about that in The View That Changed When I Reached the Top. Seeing them from the moor made the question of a changing skyline much more immediate.
The towers are only part of what a large wind development involves. Foundations, access tracks, crane areas, cables and electrical equipment have to fit into the landscape too. People deserve to understand that complete footprint and how it would affect the ground, water and habitats around it.
My visit to Hope Moor, and time spent close to Scout Moor, belong to that wider concern. Each place deserves to be considered in its own right. Together, they also raise a national question about the amount of land and infrastructure required by the energy choices being made.
Bring the local questions to Parliament
Britain needs reliable electricity at a price households and businesses can afford. It also needs productive farmland, healthy habitats and places people can enjoy. A serious national assessment should show how the proposed energy system will meet those needs, and compare practical alternatives.
That means explaining what must be built, how much land will change, what the whole system will cost and who will pay. It means looking at neighbouring developments together, including their connections and supporting works. People should be able to follow the complete picture without having to assemble it themselves from separate applications.
My petition calls for a temporary suspension of the Climate Change Act’s carbon-budget and 2050 Net Zero duties until Parliament has considered an independent national assessment of their full costs and impacts. It includes bills, industry, food and energy security, peatland, landscapes, land and infrastructure.
If these photographs remind you of somewhere you care about, please sign and share it. Your concern may begin with a moor, a field, a village or an electricity bill. Our petition gives those concerns a common place to go. At 10,000 signatures, a Government response is required.
Take a walk. Look at what is there. Then help us MAKE THEM SHOW THE EVIDENCE.
Leave a Reply