Scout Moor wind farm: Do the wind turbines spoil or enhance the Pennine landscape?

[aidanorourke]

There's no need to apologise! On some subjects I tend to be of a very strong opinion, on others I'm a bit wishy washy.

I sympathise completely with your reaction to the green thing. That's often my gut feeling too. It's often difficult to establish a true and balanced appraisal since all the information you're getting is biased, either one way or the other.

When it comes to houses and how they look, I'm often disappointed to see modern changes, such as the addition of uPVC windows, burglar alarms etc, and out on the road, speed bumps, lines on the road etc. For me that all spoils the original character.

A semi-detatched house in Burnage is for me a piece of the 1930s and should be treated in the same way as Tatton Hall - you wouldn't install uPVC windows in a stately home, and put an aerial - or wind turbine - on the top.

I like to respect the instrinsic, original character of a thing, but often it's not possible. I hate speed bumps but I accept that unfortunately, they are necessary.

[Jayne]

Did anyone think, when the first windmills were errected for practical purposes, that they would ever be a tourist attraction? Who knows what the distant future holds for windfarms!!

[fen beagle]

I don't want to start another debate, or come over as overly pedantic. But surely its the 'slowing down of cars under certain conditions' That's necessary.... Not speed bumps. (Its a detail, that does , actualy, have relevance, to the currant debate)

[aidanorourke]

I was referring to the look of speed bumps, rather than their intended effect, though that might be relevant, as you say.

I love looking at old photographs of streets - they looked so empty and tidy, no cars at all, very little street furniture, very uncluttered and much tidier and with less litter than today.

Speed bumps are unfortunately necessary for safety reasons - a tiny minority of drivers drive recklessly.

As for windmills, they look quaint and attractive because there are so few of them around today - Lytham St Anne's is the only one that springs to mind in the region. They must have seemed very backward and old-fashioned once the industrial revolution took hold. Who would ever have thought in the 1950s that they would make a comeback?

[fen beagle]

I think myself, the number of windfarms that have been built already, here, and abroad. Means the 'Tourist Attraction' argument, will apply to any region of the world were you can't see them. they are hardly a 'Novelty'

[a.l.rickards]

Does anyone know how much archeology has been recovered and what was lost during the construction?

[Sparkly]

After a bit of wondering why the blades hardly ever spun, I've found out that the windfarm is now fully commissioned. There's an open day this Saturday if you want to see it up close (although access is available anyway)

Scout Moor Wind Farm

[Max]

Having taken over 6000 pictures of the construction of Scout Moor i thought i would try and put a few of them to good use and have had a limited edition Wind Farm Calendar printed.
By the amount of people up on the moor at the weekends it has certainly become something of a tourist attraction