Nature vs car – battle continues
NOBODY really noticed when, in March this year, Agriculture, Countryside and Land Management Services announced that it was to restore coastal grassland habitat on what it called a ‘site of special significance’.
They did notice when the sun (finally) came out this summer and parking for beachgoers at Grandes Rocques was not so easy. And then, the protests began.
The States was so confident of its actions that when this newspaper referred complaints to the communications team, it simply resent the press release from March announcing the restoration project.
And then, within a week, the boulders were rolled away and the field was, once again, a car park.
The explanation was that the regeneration project hadn’t got under way as there were struggles finding a contractor to do the work. Those behind the protests wondered if it might have had something to do with them.
So maybe next year the field will be returned to nature, and parking won’t magically reappear when enough people decide it’s hot enough to head for the beach. But so many questions remain.
Will the work ever be started early enough in the year so there is no ‘obvious’ car park being bouldered off to no effect? Will people be told, and understand, the parking constraints in advance, and arrive early or go to another beach at peak times? And why this field for rewilding?
The ongoing arm-wrestle between nature and our cars continues – a self-generated conflict with strident views on both sides.