States right to dig deep into Chouet detail

The proposed lifespan for Ronez’s quarry at Les Vardes now looks more like months than years, and so, faced with the need to act quickly and the choices of enabling quarrying at Chouet, or killing off the industry locally altogether, the committee has opted to ask the States to back the former option, but only by a majority.

It’s a difficult choice which has elements of the committee pursuing a ‘do least harm’ option. But if the States needs inspiration, it need only look 20 miles away where Jersey has been faced with a very similar problem in recent years, with Ronez at the heart of it in both islands.

Mike Osborne, Jersey-based managing director of Ronez, has been through the exercise of what he calls the company’s ‘licence to operate’ in both islands – taking in sensitive expansion of quarrying activities, promoting biodiversity, meeting environmental and sustainability targets, and planning for a future without quarrying locally.

Environmental considerations are prominent in the company’s and the committee’s thinking on this issue. Mr Osborne told the Jersey-based magazine Connect earlier this year that quarrying on-island was more cost-effective – some £10-15 a tonne cheaper – and created significantly less carbon.

He quoted figures of 4.4kg of Co2 per tonne produced on-island, compared to 23.6kg for impor.

The proposal fits with the strategic identification of stone reserves – Chouet was formally identified in development plans back in 2005 – and also within the States’ energy policy, and the island’s commitment to biodiversity net gain in the States’ 2020 Strategy for Nature.

The committee has addressed environmental and economic issues in its considerations to back the continuation of the quarrying industry which has existed locally for some 250 years.

This is another debate which will polarise views, involve compromises, and inevitably some will be left frustrated.