Freight operation just one of the issues about which the douzaine has concerns

It supports the idea of moving Ferryspeed’s operations to St Peter Port Harbour, but said that this is just part of an issue which involves the high concentration of industry within one square kilometre and accessed along the same road, Bulwer Avenue.

St Sampson’s constables and douzaine met Ferryspeed in August following concerns from parishioners over the company ‘occupying Longue Hougue Lane to the exclusion of the general public’, according to the douzaine.

The company told officials that it now handled most of the goods delivered to Guernsey, having absorbed the roles of several other freight firms.

‘Ferryspeed’s expansion has taken them beyond their original premises to include the 50-year-old Guernsey Tomato Marketing Board premises and, across Longue Hougue Lane, the two hangars bought by Jack Norman from WW2 air bases,’ said the douzaine in a statement.

‘Our first and overwhelming impression was the amount of activity on site and the potential health and safety issues.

‘It was not planned as such, but it has become the centre for distribution of practically all goods for the island.’

It was as a result of its high importance that the States took steps to protect the site during lockdown, barring all public access.

After a presentation from Ferryspeed Guernsey general manager Martyn Langlois, the douzaine wondered why this facility was some 3.5km away from the island’s main port.

‘In Jersey, goods are warehoused and distributed from the harbour,’ it said.

‘This facility would be better placed on the East Arm of St Peter Port Harbour.’

The douzaine suggested also that the States’ Driver and Vehicle Licensing Department at the eastern end of the road was out of place in Longue Hougue Lane, ‘and could contribute valuable area to the site if it were moved to, for example, Burnt Lane, St Martin’s.’

At the same time as wondering about moving Ferryspeed to St Peter Port, the douzaine also asked why there had been no progress made by the States in letting Ferryspeed develop its main building, which it leases from the States and which it would develop at its own expense.

While sympathetic towards the company, the parish said it was not minded to lose

the use of Longue Hougue Lane ‘because

of government inaction and lack of planning’.

Looking slightly further afield, the douzaine said it was notable that nearly all of Guernsey’s industry was located within the same one square kilometre and accessed by one road.

‘Within that is the island’s largest builders’ merchant and timber mill, most plant hire companies, the heavy scrapyard, a structural steel fabricator, joinery shop, window manufacturer, vehicle body shop, the island’s refuse and food waste processing, general recycling, inert waste dump, the abattoir, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing office and the island’s fuel offloading and storage facilities.

‘This is the result of years of a lack of planning, foresight and poor governance.’

It has come about as a direct result of the States not producing the island infrastructure plan that it proposed in 2009 as part of its strategic plan.

And it said that there has been a tendency with heavy industry to say ‘stick it down St Sampson’s’.

‘This is continuing as the last tenants of the Fontaine Vinery are to be moved to Longue Hougue and government current proposals to infill Longue Hougue south.’

With a fire in Guernsey Recycling’s yard last year, were it not for the expertise of the Fire & Rescue Service, the douzaine said the nearby 900-year-old church could have been lost and with the nearby fuel facilities there was potential for ‘a conflagration to compete with the recent ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut’.