National Grid Visual Impact Provision – reflections on volunteering

By Mary O’Connor

Mary O’Connor is a Fellow of the Landscape Institute.

As she completes her period in office, the Landscape Institute’s representative on the National Grid’s Stakeholder Advisory Group for Visual Impact Provision project reflects on the past six years.

Since 2014, I have been the Landscape Institute’s representative on the National Grid’s Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) for its Visual Impact Provision project (VIP). This is part of the energy regulator Ofgem’s licencing of National Grid’s transmission operations, known as “RIIO”: Revenue = Incentives + Innovation + Outputs. The second phase, RIIO-T2, runs from April 2021 to March 2026. The VIP project falls under the “innovation” element of RIIO.

In RIIO-T1, there was a £500million provision to carry out work to reduce the impact of existing transmission lines in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). The project is guided by the SAG, and composed of people who are passionate about the landscape, representing National Park and AONB associations, statutory bodies for landscape and heritage, interest groups such as Ramblers, CPRE and CPRW, as well as the Landscape Institute. It is chaired by Chris Baines and also attended by a representative of Ofgem.

Peak East – Photomontage

Identifying projects

Led by Professor Carys Swanwick, an assessment methodology was adapted from the approach of the Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (GLVIA3) to identify where the infrastructure was causing adverse effects. From my involvement in GLVIA3, it was satisfying to see the assessment receive the LI Highly Commended Award in the Landscape Policy and Research category in 2015.

North Wessex Downs – Existing

North Wessex Downs – Photomontage

The line sections were ranked in order of the severity of their effects and the top twelve sections were considered in more detail while, in parallel, a series of local stakeholder consultations and workshops was held at each of the designated landscapes. Four major projects are progressing towards implementation:

Dorset AONB, currently under construction, where 8.8km of overhead line near Dorchester will be placed underground, removing 22 pylons from the landscape. The VIP cable route is archaeologically rich, and engineering work was preceded by a 20-month programme of archaeological investigations, which made some significant finds.

Peak District National Park, where 2km of overhead line east of the Woodhead Tunnel near Dunford Bridge is being replaced with underground cables, also removing seven pylons including a sealing end compound from the landscape. It has received planning permission and main engineering work was due to start in May 2021.

Snowdonia National Park, which has also received planning permission, will replace 10 pylons and about 3km of overhead line crossing the Dwyryd Estuary with cables buried in a tunnel. The project has been shortlisted in two categories in this year’s Planning Awards: ‘Planning Permission of the Year’ and ‘Award for Stakeholder Engagement in Planning’.

North Wessex Downs AONB, still in design development, will remove around 4.4km of overhead transmission lines and up to 13 pylons, close to the Millennium White Horse and the site of the Civil War battle of Roundway Down, north of Devizes. Site investigations and public consultations are currently under way.

It was clear early on that the major engineering projects to underground sections of overhead line would take a long time to come to fruition, and so the Landscape Enhancement Initiative (LEI) was introduced, using 5% of the overall provision. This provided up to £24 million over six years (2015-2021) for localised visual improvement projects1. That would mitigate adverse effects on a more local and low-key level, and which could be implemented in the short term.

The role of the LI Rep

This has been a very rewarding role. In preparing to take it up, I obtained a copy of Sylvia Crowe’s 1958 “Landscape of Power”, remembering her writing on the topic from my student days. It is extraordinary how much is still relevant of what she had to say about power generation and transmission systems in the landscape. She writes of the role of the landscape architect in guiding development, correlating “all the land uses with each other and with agriculture in such a way that they build up into a whole landscape”. These “landscape counsellors” would be “in a position to advise what effect proposed development would have, and how it could best be assimilated”.

On behalf of the LI, I have contributed to enriching the SAG’s understanding of landscape context and character (based on my view of landscape architecture as an overarching and integrating endeavour), to developing the assessment and decision-making processes, and to broadening the “visual” impact focus of the VIP to encompass the idea that landscape character improvement can reduce adverse visual impact. I also chaired the approvals panel for allocating LEI funding to project proposals.

Sylvia Crowe advocated for seeing that “a good landscape is part of the nation’s standard of living”, for the “new development of power” to be treated as “an area to be developed as a fine place in itself” and planned so it would “add character and dignity to the scene”. From the landscape point of view, she saw the “complete solution” would be to “put the whole system underground”, but recognised that the cost “would be stupendous”.

This was a lesson the SAG had to learn when we were approaching the selection of projects for undergrounding – that the amount of overhead line, identified as having very high adverse visual or landscape effects, that could be put underground within a budget of £500m would be limited. And of course, the engineering works required have the potential for significant environmental effects. In today’s regulatory climate, effects on other aspects of the environment, as well as practical considerations such as ability to access the location of the line with the very large plant and machinery needed to implement the undergrounding, all had to be taken into account.

As the current RIIO-T1 comes to an end and T2 commences, I am stepping down from this role. After an open recruitment process, the LI are appointing Sue Sljivic CMLI to take up the role in June 2021. Sue has considerable professional experience in EIA & LVIA, conducting consultations, and in major infrastructure projects. She has a particular interest in the use of colour in the landscape – a topic often discussed in the SAG. She is a founder member of RSK, an engineering and environmental science and technology company, and has recently retired after 30 years with the company. I hope she will find representing the LI on the VIP SAG as enjoyable and rewarding as I did!

Snowdonia Dwyryd Estuary – Existing

Snowdonia Dwyryd Estuary – Photomontage

www.nationalgrid.com/VIP https://lei.nationalgrid.com