Quantock Hills. An Area of Outstanding Beauty

Over the past few months the AONB Service, Forestry Commission, Natural England and National Trust have been liasing with Western Power over access to the powerlines at the far northern end of the Common.  Several of the Towers (not pylons) which are the original Towers from the late 1930’s required essential maintenance works to be undertaken and a small team from Norweb have been carrying out the repairs since January.  However one of the Towers needed to be completely replaced and so a special crane was called in to do the job.  The crane, although weighing 25 tonnes, is designed to work on very soft ground and therefore hardly left any signs of driving across the hills.

The Quantock AONB Service and Joint Advisory Committee work hard to ensure masts and other tower structures remain off the skyline but obviously some were in place before the landscape designation was in place (1956).  Therefore from time to time access over the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is required but it’s important to ensure damage is kept to a minimum and public access is not affected.