Ask the question, what is the blot?
I look out from the 8th floor, casting my eye across the skyline. It teems with mobile masts, a massacre of meccano abusing so many rooftops and I wonder why so few wind turbines are visible, when to my simple mind, it would be logical to erect turbines' [wind or photovoltaic cells] at the same time. These would have no further detrimental visual impact and create a network of clean, renewable energy generation from the city's rooftops. When I started to research mobile mast sites I quickly realised that the high density is not restricted to the city, infact the Orkney Islands have almost twice the density of masts per capita than Greater London. Mast technology, as with all things, is improving. They are getting smaller, the companies [under insistence of planning regulations] are disguising the masts, but network requirements are getting greater the impact on our visual environment remains.Recently the building of a windfarm in the Lake District was rejected as it was deemed to look unsightly. At this point I decided to check the density of mobile masts in Kendal, a lovely little town in the Lakes and the first one that sprang to mind. I counted 10 masts in and around the immediate area ranging in size from about 20 to 30 metres, one appearing to be sited on the top of a hill to the south of the town. Is this not a blot on the landscape?
Social and Environmental Responsibility
It appears to me that a significant number of mast's are sited on social housing within the city, local councils exploiting the resource of high vantage points that are sought after by mobile companies and subsequently generating revenue. Schools are boosting their budgets by allowing the siting of masts within their boundaries, be that the roof or grounds. This is a resource that should be exploited, unobstructed rooftops with easy access. Perhaps local government have a social responsiblity to do this, being able to reduce the service charges [ie for lighting of estates] since they are able to generate the electricity locally, or at least once the cost of the cells has been recovered. This initial cost could be offset by the revenue generated by the installation of a mobile mast.
Presently there are two early day motions of particular interest. 697 in regard to modernising company law and 178 on climate change. Check to see if your MP has added their signature to both of these, and if not, ask them why not. Presently Friends of the Earth are running THE BIG ASK campaign and you can send a letter from the website.
Besides the generation of electricity, steps can be made to reduce the amount of energy required. There hase been significant amount of press recently about the supermarkets measures to be 'green', make your own decision. Not ignoring the wholefood/organics market, I took a look at a couple that sprang to mind. Fresh And Wild, in the UK it is limited to a few stores in London, and one in Bristol, they are now owned by US wholefood giant 'Whole Foods Market, Inc' with 186 stores. Their environmental policy is here. The homepage generates random images of the stores so you may not get the pictures first time around, I was shocked that some appear to have the same lightbulb density as Las Vegas. Though storeless, Abel and Cole appear to have an environmental policy well inline with the produce.This year is the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster and the present government appear to be pushing nuclear as the only option to cope with the energy demands of the country. The rubbish generated by nuclear power is well documented, and is a reasonable choice for neither our nor the earth's future. I'm not an expert, but a fool can see we don't need another Sellafield.
Aims of this project
This project allows you to upload the visual impact to the landscape of mobile masts' or eco power generators, simply using the form provided upload your image, plot the location on the map, and add some keywords to make it searchable. Obviously I have an agenda, so I would prefer it if you can make the generators as beautiful as possible [ugly ones are not deleted].
There have been
19 generators and 54 mobile mast's mapped.
