Underground is too expensive, says the British Prime Minister. I’m sure he’s right. Overhead is unsightly, expensive and vulnerable to violent weather. So why not ‘on the ground’. Yes, it’s as simple as that. It’s underground without the digging but with much greater and simpler access for servicing. Vulnerable to sabotage? No more so than pylons. Still unsightly? Not at all, we have hedges and walls everywhere. They look very pretty.
A hedge or wall gives an opportunity for better design than overhead pylons. Nature herself will provide foliage camouflage for the low-rise wall of concrete which, when appropriate, can also be a platen for local artistic competitions depicting scenes right for the context.
What about the gates? Either underground or, better still, a gentle rising and falling exit. What about the trees? The more the merrier, we are told. Wouldn’t it add extra miles to the journey? Yes it would, but very few. What would it be made of? Insulated wire(s) in a concrete trough. How would you access it? At service points, just as you do pylons.
Vulnerability to weather, unsightliness and cost of digging all dealt with. Not got good enough insulation? Pull the other one. This is 2025 not 1725. There would still be local, vocal resistance but frankly how do you complain about a hedge? And being on the surface allows an almost infinite range of routes.
If you want to be creative you could use some of the ‘hedges’ for the resting place of loved ones’ ashes. Done tastefully it would provide durability and nobody could complain that the departed had lost their spark. I’d like to be at a gate, please.
If some areas were deemed especially vulnerable to vandals a controlled growth of poison ivy around the hedge would deter entrepreneurs bent on destruction. But enhancement would be – is always – a better protection than locks. Populist sentiment to preserve the very British solution to a universal problem is a powerful tool.
More powerful than guns and threats.
Let Britain follow the finance world and hedge our sustainability bets.
Do you ‘twig’ it?
Good morning
John Bittleston
What do you think? Please tell us at [email protected].
18 October 2024
