Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Generally speaking I'm with you on this. There are some places where they enhance even (mostly out to sea off places like Rhyl, it must be said).

I said a year or so ago in another thread that it's often about context though. Years ago when I was a kid, I used to go to Nottingham with my Dad on the motorway from Birmingham and I used to be fascinated by the lines of pylons marching across an otherwise flat landscape. I still think they have a certain grandeur now, which probably stems from those "roadtrips". But put them next to Tinkinswood, or the lovely pair of stones at Bwlch y Ddeufaen and they're enormously intrusive. I know comparing pylons with wind turbines isn't strictly "like for like", but I do think that a wind turbine that might blend into the landscape in one place isn't necessarily going to blend in everywhere. This probably means that you therefore have to consider them on a case-by-case basis, which is difficult without local knowledge. I personally wouldn't welcome them in the wide-open spaces of Dartmoor, say - imagine one next to White Moor and I don't see that as being a good move. But in lots of less open countryside they wouldn't offend me in the slightest.

I also think it's right to acknowledge that they represent an attempt to move us forward. None of us would want to do without electricity, so some compromises are going to be needed anyway.