The wall still needs to come down

‘Time is against us. Please, just let us get on with it.’

Two years ago, the president of Environment & Infrastructure got his wish.

After more than a day’s debate the Assembly rejected a sursis motivé by 21 votes to 11 and approved plans for a managed realignment of 130 metres of anti-tank wall at L’Ancresse.

A budget of a million pounds was put aside and the expectation was that, pending planning approval and an environmental impact assessment, the wall would come tumbling down.

Sadly, the urgency of that debate has not been translated into action.

Aside from a scattering of rock armour at the base of the most battered part of the wall, there is no sign of progress. The earliest that work might start is next summer and few would bet on that.

The slowness of the response could prove costly. The same deputies who put forward the delaying motion in 2017 have used the time to gather their forces for one last assault.

You can see their logic. If E&I can dawdle for years drawing up the environmental assessment (during which period a similar study for the inert waste dump at Longue Hougue has been completed) then the project can wait another decade.

There, though, the rationality of the requerants’ position crumbles away quicker than the concrete apron at the wall’s base.

Either the wall is worth preserving or it is not.

Spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on makeshift repairs to kick the issue down the road rather than make a decision and live with the consequences is an abdication of responsibility.

This States is already gaining a reputation for going back over its decisions. Only yesterday the ‘dead this term’ runway extension came back to life.

States members have decades of research and expert analysis showing that removing part of the anti-tank wall will not only enhance the natural beauty of the area but improve its ability to withstand rising sea levels.

It was the right decision in 2017. Nothing has changed.

They just need to get on with it.