Pyle-up. No snow porn here.

So in a decision that's bound to prove as unpopular in the interim, as Kenny MacAskill's release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, but probably won't involve armed security for the rest of his  life, Energy Minister Jim Mather has decreed that there shall be bigger, but fewer pylons running down the middle of Scotland from Beauly to Denny.  Whereas Beauly is quite beautiful, I can't see this decision having much of a visual impact on delightful Denny... 

What is interesting is the whole debate about the pylons visual impact pitted against the need for a means to carry all that lovely renewable energy to the power hungry Central Belt and beyond. Advocates against the pylons have cried out for sub-sea cables or burial underground. Scottish & Southern Energy, the company responsible have claimed both options are too expensive, yet only a few months ago announced they had more than doubled their pre-tax profit from £300 million to somewhere expected to be north of £600million, so presumably cost isn't an option to the company and its shareholders...

One would have thought, that as many of our European neighbours have opted for the sensible option of underground cables, Mr Mather might have looked at them and responded accordingly. In France there's even a system in place where they have replaced existing pylons with a rather aesthetic pylon that comes complete with a dashed attractive helix type wind turbine that feeds into the national grid as well as carrying the high voltage cables.

All this serves to remind me that when it comes to major projects that have a massive visual impact on our landscape we've missed a trick. As any visitor to the Canarian island of Lanzerote will tell you, the impact of the artist/architect Cesar Manrique has had an amazing influence on the island. Already a renowned artist in Madrid and New York, when he returned to the island in the mid 1960's at the very beginnings of the fledgling mass tourist industry. He pestered the local government that all rather go down the same route of the hideous Benidorm et al, that resort developments be no taller than a palm tree, that all houses be painted in traditional white, house shutters be green in the country and blue by the sea. He advocated the use of using natural wonders like the viewpoints and caves as alternative destinations and began creating wind sculptures throughout the island. He also persuaded the local government that all power cables be buried underground...

As a result of his involvement, Lanzerote is now a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and has become a point of reference in natural architecture. Something that Scotland has no chance of achieving. 

If only we had a MacManrique who could sit in on planning decisions, able to ignore the lobbying of big business and inform government about the adverse impact of their sometimes daft decisions.