Automatic gates to be installed after court agrees to Hougue Jehannet closure

The decision was taken after a hearing yesterday, during which three people who objected to the proposals voiced their concerns.

Crown Advocate Rupert Sewards made the application for the closure on behalf of Environment & Infrastructure. He said that a risk assessment had been done in 2018 and found that given the impact that a prolonged loss of power could cause, the risk could be managed by closing the road.

For GE, Advocate Simon Florance said that reports prepared by a security expert had highlighted several areas of concern. Specifics were redacted in the public court documents, but could be made available to the judge and jurats.

The risk assessment had focused on the fact that people were able to drive to within 10m of some sections of the station, including the control room.

Having the road open led to an unacceptable risk to the critical infrastructure, particularly from an attack using a vehicle, he said.

The gates being proposed would cost about £250,000 and be controlled either from the control room or operated by people with access cards.

Concerns raised by the Liberation Group, which also operates out of a site on Hougue Jehannet, could be addressed by it requesting the gates to be opened for their vehicles.

A traffic assessment found very few pedestrians and vehicles using the road, which had already been closed on a temporary basis for three years, seen as a trial period for closure.

Three members of the public spoke and reiterated their fears about the closure, with Liberation Wholesale operations manager Cathryn Aylett said that the company had had to use smaller lorries in order to access its premises during the road closure and that had meant having containers arriving in the island emptied at the docks, and reloaded into the other vehicles.

It was difficult to be certain about what times access would be needed, she said.

Resident John Naftel took issue with the concerns about security and said that a cyber attack was far more likely than the sort of attack suggested by the risk assessment.

Vale resident Mary Lowe said GE had been incompetent in not addressing security concerns before and she said people had often contacted her during her time as a States’ member to complain that the gates to Hougue Jehannet had been left open.

There were eight areas around the site from which it could be accessed, she said.

The site was more likely to be susceptible to attack by drones than lorries, but GE had taken no steps to bring in technology to prevent this, such as that installed at Guernsey Prison.

After a short recess, the jurats approved the application by five to three.