It's regrettable that landscape quality so rarely gets discussed. When people are so privileged as to be invited to contribute to consultations this seems to be well down the ranking order of items for discussion. Yet it is the single subject that has so inspired painters over many hundreds of years and probably still remains a favourite of amateur painters today.
When I raised the question of Burbage Moor at a meeting last year, daring to suggest that its artificial treeless state was unfortunate, some noises from the grouse moor lovers made me think I had strayed onto a forbidden subject. Perhaps the same die hards choose to consider empty moors as 'wild'.
The appeal of Blacka is partly that it changes season on season and year on year. Its mix of mature, leggy shrubs, young trees, bracken and established woodland gives it variety and also mystery as there are places some would call overgrown where wildlife of many kinds can find its own level. The thought that certain moors will look the same for hundreds of years is enough to bring on a fit of depression. Where would you choose to live? Somewhere that has exactly the same view 300 days in the year and decade after decade? Or a living vibrant place with windows looking out onto trees reflecting the seasons and shared with wild animals?
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