In supporting this amendment, I underline that we are talking not only about national parks but specifically about areas of outstanding natural beauty. Perhaps I could remind your Lordships that one
is not more important than the other in the hierarchy of beauty. The difference between national parks and AONBs is that national parks are wilderness areas, which AONBs are not; they are very often highly cultivated and farmed areas.
I remind your Lordships once again of a phrase that was used and which is central to the whole issue in its broadest context. It is a phrase that was used by Nicholas Ridley while ex cathedra, as one of the best Environment Secretaries there has been since that government department was created. He stated the importance of protecting the countryside for its own sake. That really embraces it, whether the new broadband is being put into a national park, an AONB, a special landscape area or anywhere where there would be or could be gratuitous damage to a precious landscape.