PROGRESS is a wonderful thing is it not?

From medical advances, to aeroplanes to being able to listen to music on a device no bigger than a lighter, humankind really has come up with some ingenious ideas over the centuries.

And perhaps none more so earth-changing than the internet.

To be able to communicate instantly with someone on the other side of the world or research pretty much anything by typing a word into a search engine is truly a magnificent thing.

Or is it?

As recent events in the small communities of Over Silton and Nether Silton show, perhaps the pursuit of advancing technology over all else is starting to lose its appeal.

The appetite for having superfast broadband, it seems, is less ravenous for those residents than the appetite for a beautiful, unspoilt landscape.

And it really is beautiful over there.

A sumptuous slice of chocolate box-perfect British countryside laid out for all to taste, and pretty rare in its pureness from electrical obstructions.

Except it isn’t quite so perfect now that BT has rolled in with its trucks and poles.

I daresay that the residents and visitors will get used to them in time and they could become part of the landscape no more noteworthy than pylons and farm buildings.

But I fear that is missing the point.

Whose right is it to alter these ancient, unspoilt landscapes with barely a word to the people most affected - the residents who will look out on those dastardly poles forever more?