That is the stark message from the Environment & Infrastructure Committee.
It is E&I’s responsibility to identify inert waste disposal sites, although Guernsey Waste, which comes under the States Trading Supervisory Board, actually deals with the waste.
E&I identified Black Rock as their next preferred site, and the States endorsed that decision, but now the project is on hold while tests are carried out to check if the reclamation would have any adverse impact on tidal flows.
Because no new disposal site was ready to accept the waste when the former Longue Hougue reclamation site was full, it is now being temporarily stockpiled there above ground, something which the Guernsey Development Agency says is costing the island £2,000 a day.
E&I president Deputy Adrian Gabriel said that is far from ideal but there is currently nowhere else to put it.
‘Effectively we are in Plan B now with stockpiling at Longue Hougue, so it is expensive because the cost of double handling has to be built into the gate fee,’ he said.
The proposed land reclamation at Black Rock forms part of the master plan for the regeneration of the whole St Sampson’s Harbour area put forward by the Guernsey Development Agency.
Recently there has been a question mark over the future of the GDA following the resignation of its chairman, Peter Watson. But Deputy Gabriel, who sits on its political oversight body, has no such doubts.
‘The GDA are an excellent delivery vehicle and they’ve created ideas and vision for the development but the States sometimes wants to hold on to everything, and be in control of everything. So the challenge is to give them the autonomy to deliver, but with guardrails, and perhaps we have set those guardrails too high.’
You need to be logged in to comment.