Deputies show way to common ground

Positions become entrenched, personalities are brought into play and people focus on historical side issues rather than getting to the heart of the disagreement.

The dispute over how much the golf clubs should pay to use common land has been bubbling under the surface since the original agreement was signed just after the Second World War.

Trapped in an unrealistic long-term contract, the L'Ancresse Commons Council had to bide its time and count off the decades before it could seek redress.

As the final months tick down to the end of the contract in January 2017, tensions have steadily risen as each side has sought the best outcome from their viewpoint. And in the process the chances of reaching a solution acceptable to both seems to be receding, not getting closer.

It has got to the point now where neither side can even agree who should be at the negotiating table.

The golfers insist that the States, specifically Culture and Leisure, should be involved. The Commons Council are keen to cut out a middleman and therefore bypass the department at every opportunity. In turn, the council want to let their working party represent them and do the negotiating. The golfers want the council to come to the table themselves.

When two parties cannot even agree who should sit down to talks it is clear that an acceptable compromise is some distance off.

Credit then to the two Vale deputies, Dave Jones and Matt Fallaize, who have each offered to act as independent arbitrators in a bid to broker the deal. Both are respected figures who do well in the Vale polls and can be trusted to have the interests of the whole community at heart.

If they can persuade the two sides to come together and talk about what would represent a reasonable level of compensation, rather than argue over who should sit at the negotiating table, it would at least be a step in the right direction.

But even agreeing to use the deputies as a go-between requires some form of consensus and spirit of compromise.