Impact of night-time cliff cycling concerns La Societe
La Societe Guernesiaise has expressed concerns about the impact of allowing night-time mountain biking on some stretches of the south coast cliff paths.
It fears that a ‘naive’ Environment & Infrastructure Committee did not fully understand the environmental consequences of the permission it granted.
It was announced last week that Guernsey Mountain Biking Association had been allowed to do a four-month trial to use two sections of cliff path in St Peter’s and Torteval for night-time mountain biking.
The GMBA has been trying to get permission to ride the cliff paths for more than a decade.
La Societe president Trevor Bourgaize said that by the time it was consulted, Environment & Infrastructure had already granted permission, so it had been presented with a ‘fait accompli’.
‘The only consultation we had was earlier this month when the monitor of the Black-backed Meadow Ant project was invited to attend a meeting with a representative from ACLMS and two from the GMBA,’ he said.
‘To my knowledge, this was the first contact with La Societe regarding mountain biking on the cliffs, despite this being the fourth time in the last 10 years that this had been brought to the E&I Committee.’
He added that apart from the Black-backed Meadow Ants, no other environmental issues appeared to have been considered.
‘This indicates a high level of ecological naivety, and we believe that an ecologist should have been involved in the decision-making process.’
La Societe met ACLMS and expressed its concerns on 14 November.
Mr Bourgaize said that the cliff top routes all went through designated Sites of Special Significance.
‘This is land bought and maintained at not inconsiderable expense by La Societe as nature reserves,’ he said. ‘This corner of Guernsey is special and rich in flora and fauna.’
He said La Societe was particularly worried about the impact on sea birds and plant species, and had particular concerns regarding three species of owl.
‘By the middle of March, they will probably be sitting on eggs,’ he said.
‘To reach breeding condition the female must put on weight. Night-time disturbance will make hunting more difficult.
‘Our rarest owl species is unlikely to attempt to breed with increased levels of disturbance.’
He said La Societe had now sent a number of recommendations to E&I, including ending the trial more than a month early on February 14 to ensure that breeding birds could complete their lifecycles.
La Societe have also questioned how the trial will be monitored, and has asked E&I what the parameters of such monitoring will be, and who will be gathering the data.
