Visitors to Turville can now enjoy a 'truly scrumptious' view of the windmill used in the classic film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang after Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) buried nearby power lines underground.
Engineers fromSSEN have completed a £268,000 project to underground part of the electricity network around Cobstone Mill, the location of the Potts family's home in the 1968 family favourite Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which sits within the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Last year SSEN, who own and maintain the electricity networks in central southern England and northern Scotland, launched a consultation asking members of the public, local authorities and charities to nominate overhead power lines in officially designated beauty spots that they wanted to see buried underground. After being selected as one of the successful nominees for the £9.6million undergrounding programme, SSEN worked closely with local planning officers and Turville Parish Council to ensure the work to replace the overhead lines with 2.2km of underground cable was carried out as smoothly as possible, and with minimum disruption to the local community.
Ray Jones, from Turville Parish Council, was impressed not only with the final visual result, but also with the way SSEN worked with the local community to keep everyone updated throughout the project: "Before the work started, we had an email drop, and also a leaflet through the door, which outlined the plan and where the various cables would be going. When the power was off, the company provided welfare facilities to give us hot food and drinks, and there were also two generators, one at the village school, and the other one was at the pub."
Austin Cobb, Head of Customer Operations for SSEN, said: "Overhead power lines play a key part in ensuring a safe, reliable and cost effective electricity network, but we also realise that some people feel they can have a detrimental impact on the views of the natural environment. That's why we launched this programme and gave the public the opportunity to help us decide which overhead lines and wooden poles should be replaced by underground cables to help enhance the visual appeal of national parks and areas of natural beauty."
For more information on our undergrounding project and how to suggest a location you feel would benefit, please visit : https://www.ssen.co.uk/Undergrounding.