I really think it's about time someone started a Campaign Against Visual Pollution. When I was at school I learned there were three types of pollution - air, sea and visual. We seem to have completely forgotten about visual pollution and are instead totally obsessed by air pollution. What other reason could there be for the fact that we seem quite happy to allow giant wind turbines to blight our landscapes, or that we pollute our village streets with green and brown monstrosities called wheelie bins, or that totally useless roadsigns inhabit every ten yards of some of our roads? I am sure you can think of more examples. Green belt legislation is not enough. Yes, it prevents building and development, but that's it.
What I really can't abide are roadsigns which are a statement of the bleedin' obvious. Like the one at the end of my parents' drive (on a ten foot high metal pole) which informs you that the footpath ends here. As if we hadn't noticed. Or the lamp post in the same village with a 30mph sign on it ... 5 yards before one with a 20mph sign. We need to encourage councils to rip down unnecessary road signs. I know Alan Duncan has done a lot of work in this area, but there's a lot more which needs to be done.
98 comments:
Have you farted?
CPRE had a camapiagn to unclutter the countryside as you describe
Have you ever thought about a job at the Daily Mail, Iain...?
Classic Motorway signage:-
First sign states "Tiredness can kill -Stop now and take a break!"
the next one approx 50 yards later:-
"No stopping on the hard shoulder for the next 2 miles"
Iain,
If you wish to start a campaign against Visual Pollution, can we include any appearance by Brown, Balls and other Labour government ministers?
Just a suggestion......
Visual pollution? After Newsnight last night can I call for the abolition of Liam Byrne??
I suppose not since the only reason he can have been promoted was to make Balls and Brown look good.
Good point Iain. Pity that when the CWF pamphlet Stop The War Against Drivers made this point you poo-pooed it. Still, the Lord loveth a sinner that repenteth.
"Have you ever thought about a job at the Daily Mail, Iain...?"
What is it about Iain's argument that you disagree with? Do we really need a load of patronising road signs telling us the blatently obvious?
My favourite signs are the ones warning you of a dangerous corner in small writing and so many words that by the time you've read it you're in the bushes. Clearly the big black & white arrow sign would be misleading without knowing how many accidents (with subcategory for motorcyclists) had happened there in the last 3 years.
Just a thought. Is visual pollution created by Gordon's over engorgement of the public sector - Those who work in the "Department For The Nanny State" given carte blanch to state the bleeding obvious in order to justify their public service related jobs.
I'd go for the road signs in Welsh - while you're busy trying to find the English bit your eyes are off the road & the liklihood of missing something important increases significantly.
Quite right, Iain, but don't forget noise and light pollution.
Iain
They're going to love you on this speed awareness course. Having attended one last week, I'm certain that you will be the disruptive one at the back...
Hmm, will those nasty signs with a black figure "30" on a white background surrounded by a red ring be at the top of your list?
Iain,
Perhaps had there been more 30mph signs the other day you may not have 3 new points on your licence!
Wind turbines are beautiful. I would much rather have thosands of them than one coal fired power station.
I agree with Alex. Wind turbines look sleek and modern. They just LOOK environmentally friendly.
Re: Befuddled Motorist - There used to be a sign on the A30 in the way to Cornwall set up like this:
"Welcome to Cornwall"
50 yards later
"Speed Cameras"
***Like the one at the end of my parents' drive (on a ten foot high metal pole) which informs you that the footpath ends here. As if we hadn't noticed.***
Honestly, Iain, you're a sweetheart but you do talk nonsense at times. Signs referring to footpaths aren't referring to handy pedestrian routes but Public Rights of Way, access to which is legally enforceable. These footpaths can continue right across roads and people's drives and gardens as you very well know.
So it's rarely obvious where a public footpath starts or ends.
P.S. You could reduce visual pollution by taking the Thriller pic off your top posts. Yes, Michael Jackson is dead, to coin your own phrase: "as if we hadn't noticed".
Wind turbines are horrible visually and wholly ineffective. Those I normally see on my regular train journeys are rarely even moving.
I agree, down with all sorts of visual pollution. I would go further and address sartorial pollution as well. Down with shell suits, I recommend that all decent gentlemen immediately sign up with a good tailor such as Anderson & Sheppards.
Can't we get Lord Mandy of Rio and Mr Bollocks to implement a law or something to force sartorial elegance? It would probably be the only useful thing they have ever done in their time.
Manchester Labour had a clutter czar a good few years ago ... There are still some naughties of course, but much improved. Meanwhile in Tory Kent Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells - newly alert after double speeding fine farrago - stills finds the signage getting up their nose. Why would anyone want to put these useless copycat Tories in charge of our nation?
Ed the Shred has a point. I suspect that one of our scruffier local Lib Dem councillors may have been told by his colleagues to get himself a new suit ... and there it was on the next Focus leaflet ... a shell suit! Nothing wrong with shell suits mind.
Dunno. Are wheelie bins likely to cause catastrophic climate change with the consequent death and destruction?
Get a grip.
Wind turbines are ugly, alien and sinister.
There seems to be doubt about their usefulness.
Get rid, get rid!
"What is it about Iain's argument that you disagree with? Do we really need a load of patronising road signs telling us the blatently obvious?"
I disagree with him about wind turbines. I think they enhance the landscape and are necessary.
And, call me old fashioned if you like, but I quite like having bins to put my rubbish in.
I agree on the road signs though. But, saying that, I've really not that seen THAT many pointless signs...
"Have you ever thought about a job at the Daily Mail, Iain...?"
I imagine that's a touchy subject...
Is the pound sign still visible in Alan Duncan's taxpayer-funded garden?
They changed the speed limit on the A82 in Glencoe from NSL to 40 & 50. A section of the old line of the road feeds a few houses and shops, it is quite narrow.
Some muppet forgot to include in the Traffic Order for the new speed limit so another muppet (perhaps same one) carefully erected NSL signs at each end of this section of road.
Eventually someone seems to have done another Traffic Order and they now have 30 mph signs there.
My pet hate in signs is the M6 (not sure if it applies to the rest of the motorway network).
At every junction there is a sign saying "Highways Agency" as you go down the sliproad and another saying that "Highways Agency" ends.
They do not perform any useful function - no contact telephone number like we have for the road maintenance company signs in Scotland.
They must have cost a fortune when you work out the planning and H&S work before a single sign is erected. Each one would probably need a lane coning off for safety whilst erected.
I would not be surprised if each junction cost several thousand pounds just in these pointless signs
Not just the countryside either, drive into London and look at the signs everywhere. Coming in on the A40 it's hard to see the pavement for signs. It's horrible. It makes me think that perhaps there's a Belgium street lighting issue.....
But Iain, this requires a massive dose of common sense, which we all know is not that common.
Been stung by the speed cameras on the A23 which appears to be your primary complaint perhaps?
For balance. I live in North Cornwall and happen to think that wind turbines are beautiful. And much preferable to cooling towers or an open cast coal mine. Each to their own.
Alex said...
"Wind turbines are beautiful. I would much rather have thosands of them than one coal fired power station."
And on a calm day, when the lights go out, you will be wanting that coal fired station I bet.
Stevo Bevo said...
"P.S. You could reduce visual pollution by taking the Thriller pic off your top posts. Yes, Michael Jackson is dead, to coin your own phrase: "as if we hadn't noticed".
Good point, I'm fed up with seeing his mugshot all over the place!
How about removing "Welcome to ,,," on notices like "... East Croydon" or "...Scurfcastle Library". You wouldn't dream of heading your blog "Welcome to Iain Dale's Diary". It's all visual pollution
It's not just the quantity of signs that's unacceptable it's the malign use to whiuch some of them are put!:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23416834-details/Motorist%27s+victory+over+%C2%A31m+traffic+spy+camera/article.do
and another thing....
Please remove the visual pollution of that offensive plug for Jackson's video from your blog.
>>I am sure you can think of more examples.<<
Almost all BBC political correspondents.
You mention giant wind turbines blighting the landscape. As it happens, I have just returned from a brief stroll around Plumstead where I had a view across the awful landscape across Belmarsh and Thamesmead looking towards Dartford. The odd presence of wind turbines lends a slightly romantic presence to a landscape which is a visual blight in itself.
Personally i hate all the 60's concrete monstrosities that clutter our town centres and cause so much visual polution.
I quite agree, Tory Activist. The interesting question might be how many millions of pounds of public money was wasted on the '60s architecture that had to be pulled down because it was so awful it did not work? For all the sniping at the Prince of Wales' 'out-dated classicism' over the Chelsea Barracks site, he has at least had the guts to get political and take a stand against the ugly nonsense that passes for modernity.
How about no trampy immigrants or poles out graffitti in larnark way Belfast, along the interface where loyalists are building their annual 12th bonfire?
This is true visual pollution.
Wind farms are for sure visually polluting, inefficient and expensive.
The only reason we have them is because:
1) no one in the Government can add up properly, if they could they would have worked out what a waste of money they are
2) we have to have them because of the comittment to 'renewables' we have made to the EU
3) the Government doesn't want to upset the EU
4) the Government hasn't got the balls to make a proper decision and go for nuclear power; which in business speak is a complete fucking no brainer
Agree with the comments on road signs, just another example of the 'nanny state'.
I also object to the 'it is illegal to smoke on these premises....' stickers as well. We all know that.
Old trucks and trailers being used as advertsing boards in farmers fields
Margaret Beckett's face.
Caravans and motor homes.
Gypsy sites (can I say that?)
Litter - although this has been worsened as there never seems to be a bin when you need one.
I'm glad i'm not the only one Gareth! Even some of the steel-and-glass buildings going up these days look a damn sight better than the grey concrete blocks of buildings. I also suspect they'll still look pretty devent in 40 years time.
However you just can't beat good old Brick-built, traditional designed buildings. I'm very much a fiscal conservative, but i'd be sorely tempted to provide public money to compulsary purchase the worst examples, tear them down, and build nicer looking buildings in their place.
Round my way we have a special group whose task it is to take down aluminium road signs and take them to scrap dealers for melting down and recycling.
They're called Pikeys
Alex
I'd prefer to have electricity rather than wind turbines
Can we make a start with your choice of ties?
Yawn. Lame even by your feeble standards, Iain. If you've run out of things worth saying, why not give the blog a rest for a bit?
Can't agree with your criticism of wind turbines I'm afraid. They're majestic things in my opinion, one of my favourite memories is seeing a row of them on top of a mountain in Navarre. I can understand why people don't want them too near their houses but in open country side I think they add to the beauty of this country.
Is Armando Ianucci writing your blog now?
You're quite right, it's the issue of our time.
Wind turbines. The ultimate "eco-theatre". Noisy, ugly, kill large number of birds, especially for some reason, birds of prey. And how many conventional power stations do they replace? None... They need 90+% hot-standby, without which we'd get brownouts - or have to buy even more electricity from the French.
We too have a 3-foot-square "No footway for 1/2 mile" sign almost outside the house - which would be fine, except that there isn't a "footway" before it either, anywhere...
Yep. It's the Elfen Safety culture which is really stuffing our lives. 'Footpath ends here'? Stunning. Is there another which says 'Footpath starts here'?
I am utterly pissed off with this insidious controlling nannying state. All done in the name of ensuring our better health - but just a means of extending State Control.
These people are damn dangerous.
And another thing about wind farms. Why do we need all this extra wind anyway?
I call it "Urban Clutter"
You're against visual pollution but right under this post there's a huge advert for a dead nonce. Er ...
And lets remoev the legal necessity to place a road sign naming the road on both sides of the start of the road. One sign should be enough.
You could start with your site.
"I know Alan Duncan has done a lot of work in this area, but there's a lot more which needs to be done."
And none of it remotely effective. He kicked up a stink about some yellow signs outside Langham (and various other villages in the consitutency since) years ago. Made a threat that he would 'dig them up himself' if the council didn't take them down.
Never did. All mouth and short trousers, that man.
Don't worry, when the economy collapses people will rip them down for scrap. Think of road signs as a delayed benefit cheque,
In Hertfordshire we have many empty metal poles along the road verges - a large number of the metal signs have already "gone missing"
I personally regard wind turbines as inspirational. At least, it tells me, at least we're doing something constructive.
You have heard of climate change, right? And you know you can undo the visual blight of a roadsign (about which I generally agree) in about twenty minutes but all that CO2 will warm us for decades?
Yes james, I've heard of "climate change" - or "global warming" as it was called until the planet steadfastly refused to follow the models and began cooling down again.
Your point?
Oh, and by the way... There's absolutely nothing constructive about windmills. They are "eco-theatre", nothing more.
Anyone wanting to see a reduction in roadsigns will be interested in the man who pioneered such a changes in Holland, a traffic engineer called Monderman.
Amongst other things he believed that the aesthetic of road design was very important, that most signs, traffic lights and railings were unnecessary and that road users could be trusted to determine appropriate speeds if they understood the context of the road through adequate visual clues.
Sadly Monderman is deceased now. Here's a clip of him describing a road junction he redesigned in town called Drachten - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo3KWHqmDhA
What are the alternatives exactly, Iain? I'm talking specifically about wheelie bins. They're not aesthetically pleasing, that much is true. But what exactly are they supposed to do about this? Perhaps make the bins available with pictures of pretty flowers on the side, or a selection of the ties you like to wear on Sky News?
Or the lamp post in the same village with a 30mph sign on it ...
Mmmmmm ... lamposts .... where is Devil's Kitchen?
Alex 5:59 and Anonymous 6:14 - They butcher thousands of birds on their traditional flights which they make by air currents and landmarks.
Only the British would be so politically cowed that they could contemplate flocks of birds flying on their traditional routes since time immemorial, and being butchered in the air, as worth the sacrifice for their obscene "wind farms".
I have come up with a solution to the wheelie bin problem that may be to your satisfaction.
http://i42.tinypic.com/3346rfm.jpg
It's partly to do with departmental budget-boasting: my signage budget is bigger than yours.But it's also a compulsive need to fill a vacuum. Encounter silence + spew out a load of gibberish = verbal diarrhoea. See a void + devise a sign to fill it = escritorial ditto? Above all it's the Nanny State need to control: find out what that man's doing and tell him not to do it.
The signs are about "control", we must never be allowed to forget that we are subject to their laws.
The signs that really piss me off are on Motorways when we now have to be told that there is no hard shoulder for 130 yards. For 99.9999% of drivers this is of no relevance and for the infinitesimal proportion that need to use a hard shoulder, will the absence of one for 130 yards (at 70mph this is about 4 seconds) make any difference to their decision making process?
"Daily Mail" comments are an easy way for lefties to shut down conversation. It's not as serious as calling someone a racist when there is no response allowed. But calling someone a "Daily Mail reader" or comparing someone to a Daily Mail writer is a way of ridiculing them. In the left's eyes there is no answer to this ridicule. Oddly someone on the right is not allowed to shutdown leftie stupidity with a Guardian comparison.
Wind farms do provide for some interesting carbon accounting. Turbines are obviously best sited in windy areas such as coastlines rather than inland, and require substantial foundations.
Foundations are generally made of concrete, usually in the hundreds of tons scale, each ton of concrete produced producing half a ton of Co2. This is neglecting the carbon cost of other aspects of construction.
Each wind turbine therefore produces a carbon debt thatbit gradually repays (there is some need for ongoing maintenence). Depending on the wind situation and the expected service life a windfarm may never pay off it's carbon debt.
When accounting for "carbon neutral" energy, our politicians generally ignore this carbon capital and look only at carbon revenue. If we are interested in real reductions rather than expensive environmental gestures we must not let them get way with this.
A typical turbine takes 62 years to pay off this carbon debt, yet has an expected service life of 25 to 50 years. Not only are inland sites generally less efficient in energy terms, they may actually substantially add to co2 production.
Ugliness is not the only reason to question these blights on the landscape.
I always wonder, where is the green belt?
Can we go visit it?
Then I remember it was a stupid idea thought up by some communists, so I go to Lyme Park or Dunham Massey instead.
Too right, Iain. The assault on the visual senses is an assault on the psyche. It all adds to the general feeling of malaise.
Speaking of lamp posts, my council, in its wisdom, decided that our current crop of lamp posts weren't green enough. So it installed more lamp posts, each within 30 cms of the lamp posts they were meant to replace. Only, they didn't replace them.
Outside our front door, we now have two hideous lamp posts - one made of concrete and the other 'green' one, a metal construct, painted a hideous green.
At night, they both come on!
Barking! Doubtless, our rates will go up to pay for these monstrosities.
@ Not a sheep
Good point. Now, what's the opposite of a 'Daily Mail Reader'? A 'Daily Sport Reader', perhaps? After all, not too many difficult words in the 'Sport', are there? Nothing too taxing, intellectually. Have you noticed how people 'reading' such august journals as the Sport and the Sun seem to be moving their lips as they struggle to form the words? Some of them also use a ruler to help them make their way along the lines of text.
When I lived in Amsterdam there was a public sign that always made me smile. It had one word on it, "OBSTAKEL". So far so good. The only problem was that the only obstacle was the pole containing the sign.
I am with you on this, Iain, 100%. Have you seen those horrible little blue 'Unsuitable for heavy vehicles' notices which have sprung up everywhere in the wake of SatNavs?
And these things are very expensive.
Hear, hear!
- the scattering of wheelie bins aournf the countryside disfigures the place and wold NEVER have receveied planning consent.
- there are too many road signs. I agree with the Poster who said that they are there because people are employed with pension) to put them out. The costs!!
- Welcome to Xxx. What a crock of s**t. No-one is welcome because of the ridiculous petty regulations when you get there. 'Welcome to our petty jurisdiction' would be more appropriate.
- Lose almost ALL pedestrian crossings with traffice lights, bring back Belisha beacons, reintroduce personal responsibility into this small corenr of our lives.
- And so on and so forth.
I too think wind turbines look cool. I can understand people arguing against them because of their alleged ineffeciency/don't believe in climate change or whatever, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Hell, I think they look cool enough that they could put them up there and not plug them into anything. Big spinning things look cool.
This is a safey issue, too. Too much street clutter distracts drivers and pedestrians.
"What I really can't abide are roadsigns which are a statement of the bleedin' obvious. Like the one at the end of my parents' drive (on a ten foot high metal pole) which informs you that the footpath ends here."
I have always assumed that the purpose of the Footpath Ends Here sign is to warn drivers that there is a greater likelihood of pedestrians on the actual road, since there is nowhere else for them to go.
I can't say that the presence/absence of a footpath is 'bleeding obvious'. Like most drivers I don't particularly check whether there is a footpath or not.
Maybe there should be more 30 mph reminder signs on the A23 but I suppose they would constitute a statement of the bleeding obvious.
The trouble is that when the council sign officer puts in 100 new signs then he/she has a larger budget to "manage" all the extra signs and then gets a pay rise for the pleasure.
Working in local government I see this sort of thisng all the time. Unfortunately the centralised safety regs from Whitehall and Brussells offer the Council Officers sufficient weaponry to scare timid councillors into submission if they raise concerns about the costs.
They can then work towards their utopian world of full employment where each citizen gets to manage their own sign for £25,000 a year.
"I always wonder, where is the green belt?
Can we go visit it?
Then I remember it was a stupid idea thought up by some communists, so I go to Lyme Park or Dunham Massey instead."
Disraeli - 1876 Enclosures Act. Prevented Epping Forest from the encroachment of speculative builders.
Or you could go to 1947 when after pressure from the Campaign to Protect Rural England the Town and Country Planning Act enabled local authorities to designate areas to be protected from government. That's ENABLED, not FORCED.
This whole article does sum up the difference between liberals and illiberals quite nicely, however.
"There are things going on that I'm not personally receiving any direct benefit from which irk me slightly, nor am I minded to consider things from another point of view or use a single synapse to think about what their purpose is in this world - thus they annoy me and must go!"
Iain there are enormously powerful laws against "visual pollution" - try building an extension to your house without planning permission or getting planning permission if a single neighbour or indeed non-neighbouring "environmentalist" busy body objects & you will find yourself stopped.
All the instances of "visual pollution" you mention are caused by government I thought you were libertarian enough to realise that when you give government the power to stop us doing things you encoursge them to do worse.
I don't mind the wind turbines, I don't find them unnatractive.
But I know what you mean about road signs. We have a marked cycle path on a pavement in town (why, I don't know), at every junction there is a 'Cyclists dismount' then a 'Cycle path' sign. This must happen about 10 times over 400m.
I've also heard that Gordo's plan to put the ridiculous 50mph blanket speed limit on country roads will mean speed limit signs every 500m.On every road. Anything to avoid actually raising driving standards!
Buy share in signage companies now
Wheelie bins, whilst not the most attractive items, are a lot nicer than seeing strewn rubbish and waste all over a street in the morning because of foxes ripping refuse sacks open the night before.
Thanks Iain. This is a campaign with no downside and for which our children will thank us. I utterly agree with you about the littering of the countryside especially with ridiculous furniture. My latest hate are the endless yellow bollards currently being bolted to every single road junction in Hampshire however minor, gravel lanes included. And why we need stainless steel columns to support signs explaining the purpose of a pavement... in a recession. But what can we actually do, glad to help and indeed make a modest donation if a cause can be assembled?
The over-signage is probably causing accidents rather than preventing them. See centre of Wimbledon, by the station, for a driver's nightmare. Let's get rid of this expensive waste.
And while we're at it, do something about all the multiple bins in people's porches - they look really messy, stink in hot weather, attract vermin esp. in hot weather, encourage more rubbish and are probably overkill.
Cars and most people.
Simple solution, Iain: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=44566&C=SO&U=strat15
I can't help pointing out the glaring contradiction that has now been created on your blog since the arrival of the prominent pro-smoking lobby banner at the top of the page. If you are arguing against 'visual pollution' while supporting the reintroduction of noxious fumes into our social environment, I can only ask, are you joking or serious about this?
@Unsworth
Some of them also use a ruler to help them make their way along the lines of text.
Text? Nah. They're just measuring what they see in the pictures.
Gareth Thomas, have you ever heard of the concept of "Advertising"? I think you will find the banner you are referring to comes under that category. Whether I agree with it or not is neither here nor there.
That's a rather odd put-down, Iain! Yes, I have 'heard of the concept of advertising' and indeed worked in it as well. Do you honestly mean to tell us you have no control over advertising space on your blog? I should take care in that case. To take one obvious example, you would not want the BNP buying advertising space would you? Acceptance of adverts indicates no objection to the causes concerned, and usually tacit approval.
I agree with reducing road signs where it is cluttered but I know from dealing with highways that many signs are there to comply with other legislation and that there are people who oppose road changes based on councils not complying with legislation as well as road uesrs who appeal against actions on the basis of there not being signs etc. Our councils are getting tied up in red tape and while they could make some changes it needs to be done in parralel with Govt..
This is not entirely correct. For most people, the only real visual pollution are advertisements. Would you rather have those dirty coal energy producing plants than wind turbines? Many people even find those visually appealing. And those traffic signs--do you want to have people dead just because you want the highway to look "better"? Think again. Even if ads are sometimes funny, they're just into money. Your money. And they even cause accidents.
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