I work next to an Electricity plant belonging to EDF
During my journey to work I see 3 lines of massive pylons marching across the fields.
Within the local area we have a new Wind Farm, small with only 7 windmills but more planned I believe.
A few farms and horticultural units have a windmill or 2 on their land and many many houses and businesses have solar panels.
When plans for the wind farm were published a few, shall we say Opinionated, peeps stuck their heads over the parapet. Some were for and some were not. Feelings and words ran hot and loud and one poor soul took the only way out that he could envisage, it was to be on his land, would have saved his farm and his "friends and neighbours" made his life a living hell. Bye the bye, long gone now.
I look at the massive plant,lit up like the Star Ship Enterprise, as it is referred to by some, and I see a, now how did it go... oh yes A Monstrous Carbuncle.
I see the Pylons looking for all the world like Extra Terrestrial Invaders staking out new territory and shudder, did you ever read the reports of the high levels of various cancers that occur in their vicinity, truth or fiction?
Then I look at the windmills, and I see Kate Bush singing Wuthering Heights, I see Dame Margot Fonteyne gliding through the air, as light as thistledown, to be caught gently by Nureyev.
I see the Great Crested Grebe performing their mating ritual dance on the water.
Perhaps I am a woolly headed romantic, perhaps I am an Idiot, but this is how I see them, elegant and graceful.
The solar panels seem intrusive and ugly, thankfully most of them are well above eye level, having said that if my roof space allowed for it I would have them as nobody overlooks my roof, and the savings can be remarkable.
I have climbed to the top of a windmill and walked around the outer edge, a wonderful birds eye view of the countryside. I would not dare set foot near a power plant or a Pylon, just in case.
All this came about from work last night, at tea break I was chatting to some one from another department, she was saying that her daughter, who is house hunting, had found the ideal place, the right size, the right area and at an amazing price, all this was from the house details sent from the agents. They went to look at the property and WOW, no where in the details did it say that there were pylons very close and the cables went over the garden.
The agent, who met them for the viewing, was blase about it and the vendor pooh poohed the bad publicity about living under power lines.
Needless to say the viewing did not happen, the next day the agent rang to offer a £2,000 reduction in price, for a quick sale. The answer was ....... you guessed not printable, therefore blowing in the wind.
When we went back to work I had to laugh, the song on the radio was, Windmills of my mind.
It is not a bad morning here, the sun keeps popping out to say hello, the dogs are snoring gently beside me, Michael is snoring not so gently upstairs and my washing is now about to go on the line.
No photo's again today, I have damaged the memory card in my camera and a new one is on it's way, it is probably in a canoe as we speak winding it's merry way down the Amazon.
OOh It may be travelling with my new sewing machine needles, £9.61 for 100, yes that is right 100 including postage from the US. I found the site from a quilting blog, I buy these exact same needles at £1.98 for 5, well I used to, I will save 30p on every needle and I change my needles often.
Now all I need is to find my favourite thread at the same level of saving. TTFN Pam
We are 4 miles inland from Sizewell Power Station and there are pylons next to the top of our field. Without them we wouldn't have been able to afford to live here as they devalued the house a bit so we could afford it.
ReplyDeleteWe did lots of research and nobody had come to any definite conclusions about how close to pylons you need to be for then to affect your health. There are problems for people who live next door to small substations which are in every town and village in the country. We can honestly say we rarely think about the pylons now. It would be good if a government would take the initiative to have more sustainable power production, but they only have a short term outlook, plus how many people are willing to use less electric? Without those two things we are unfortunately stuck with power stations and pylons.
I agree with you, it is just my thoughts that I would rather look at a wind farm than Pylons and power stations. Like the lorries that snarl up the roads they are necessary. Wind farms can not produce enough power and we all use power,who would go back to heating water in copper over a fire and do their laundry by hand.Just as we need the lorries to transport the goods around. It is all a matter of balance, there is no easy one size fits all answer.
ReplyDeleteAfter all I work in a power and water guzzling food factory, if the consumer stopped buying convenience food we would close, as would hundreds more. Transport firms, packaging manufacturers and label printers and so on would close. Thousands of people out of work, not spending money, the domino effect would kick in and chaos would rule.
It is good that, as I said fact or fiction,the health issues worked in your favour.
I was told by a professor that there is so much scattered electricity around the pylons that if you take a flourescent light "bulb" there, it will light up...have never tried it, but mean to. I never seem to drive around with one in thr car...I would NOT buy a place near one, either. It is not "good energy" !
ReplyDeleteOver the years I have read many articles about the subject and the one constant is that no one person agrees totally with another. For me it is a personal decision based on nothing concrete.
DeleteI would never seek to impose my thoughts on to another. I would not buy a property close to Pylons now but if I was young and had the chance to buy what I wanted, at a price that I could afford who knows how I would decide, not me for certain.