‘Reopen Grandes Rocques’ overflow car park’ – petition

Bill and Margaret Masterton, 81 and 77 respectively, have been visiting the beach for more than 60 years, and were inspired to start the petition last week after overhearing beachgoers’ dissatisfaction at the lack of parking available.

The petition is available to sign at Grandes Rocques kiosk – the owners of which support the move – and has gained more than 80 signatures so far. Additionally, an online version of the petition had 80 signatures yesterday.

The former overflow area next to the beach’s main car park used to provide space for more than 30 vehicles, but was closed earlier this year, so that the area could be restored as a coastal grassland habitat.

Mrs Masterton said the closure meant that parking in the main car park was now a ‘mess’, with the warmer weather attracting a large number of vehicle users to the beach.

‘You get 4x4s up on the banks and problems with cars not being able to get through to the exit.

‘There’s been a lot of disruption and complaining, people walking down onto the beach have not been happy about the lack of spaces.’

She said that re-wilding the former car park was an excellent idea, but believed there was room to accommodate both green space and parking spaces in the area.

‘I believe it was done to allow wildlife to access the other side of the coast more easily, but there is already a lot of grass on the far side.’

The couple live in St Martin’s, and Mr Masterton said that due to their age, the lack of suitable accessibility to a beach in their home parish, and the items they needed to bring with them to the beach, they needed a car to travel to Grandes Rocques.

‘From home, our closest beach is Fermain, but for us at our age that’s very difficult to get to, like many of the beaches in St Martin’s,’ he said.

‘And at beaches like Petit Bot the parking is even worse than here.’

Grandes Rocques kiosk supervisor Sophie Charmley said the situation in the car park had been getting worse over the summer.

‘It’s bad, especially on busy days, people park on banks and verges,’ she said.

‘When there are balcony gigs the car park seems to get busier.’

Dave Barlow, who also works at the kiosk, said that the number of vehicles meant that coaches were not able to access the car park, and he was concerned about what might happen in an emergency situation.

‘I’m not sure the emergency services would be able to get in, you can’t give way when it’s this busy.

‘The area was made an overflow for a reason in the past.’

He added that he had been contacted by Deputy Andy Cameron about the problem in the last few days, who had told him that he was to meet officials from Agriculture, Countryside & Land Management Services soon and would raise the issue then.

ACLMS declined to comment on the latest petition and referred to its press release from March, which stated coastal grassland was an important habitat, supporting wild flowers, such as sea pink and sea campion, and pollinators and birds. It was expected the plants would take some time to get reestablished, after years as an overflow car park.

n The petition can be viewed at https://www.change.org/p/car-park-chaos-at-grandes-rocques-petition-to-re-open-the-over-flow-car-park