‘Nobody told us about special grassland at Candie Cemetery’
ST PETER PORT constables are to consult with biodiversity education officer Julia Henney ahead of replanting sections of Candie Cemetery after destroying a rare habitat during recent work.
When work took place to improve the safety of a wall at the cemetery an area of grass inside it had to be cleared.
It later emerged that this was regarded as an area of unimproved grassland, considered one of the most biodiverse habitats.
The recent Habitat Survey Report for 2018 found that there was no longer any unimproved grassland left in the island.
Parish senior constable Dennis Le Moignan said they had no idea that the area was considered so important when work was undertaken.
‘It was just an area of grass and weeds,’ he said.
‘We had work to do – we had to put drainage in and everything.’
Not doing the work could have seen the wall collapsing into Upland Road.
‘Nobody ever told us [it was unimproved grassland], so we were unaware.’
But now work to repair the wall is finished, the parish is looking to place shrubs and new grass in the soil.
‘We’re going to put in some low-allergy type bushes along there,’ said Mr Le Moignan.
‘But I will take some advice from Julia Henney to see if there’s a specific grass we can put in.’
