Views West, Views East

For residents in Sheffield's western suburbs the view to their west will take in the high land including Blacka, Burbage and Houndkirk. This is highly valued by many people, and much referred to by estate agents, some houses having been designed and built positioned to take advantage of the favourable outlook. Others have had windows later put in to contrive the same advantage.

When up here on Blacka we see the other side of this. Unlike Burbage and Houndkirk, Blacka is aligned so that its main views are to the east. It's true that the northern outlook takes in a good part of Houndkirk and that the very highest point of Blacka's pasture land allows a glimpse of some land further to the west including Higger Tor. Topmost parts of Bole Hill also give a more panoramic view. But for most visitors who stop to look around them the eye is more often drawn towards the outlying parts of Sheffield, Dore, Totley, Holmesfield and neighbouring attractive stretches of green farmland leading towards Chesterfield.This gives Blacka a different character to some of the nearby moorland which looks out towards Derbyshire's High Peak. So despite the appealing wildness of Blacka itself its views are more vulnerable to what goes on in the swathe of land that protected by green belt restrictions last century. At its best this view to the east adds appeal setting the wildness in a context of green farmland on a pleasantly human scale.

More recently larger structures have appeared, out of scale with the small groupings of houses around Dore and Totley. Clearly the planning process has failed in its duty to protect us from inappropriate development. Do the planners even bother about the impact on the view from the green amenity land or do they just think that its an unimportant consideration because nobody actually lives here?

Nobody?