The clock runs down on scaly crickets and ormers
WHEN the controversy swirled at its greatest during the debate over reclaiming much of Belle Greve Bay, there was one protest sign that still sticks in the brain – it proclaimed simply ‘Save the winkles’.
In three simple words and a little bit of humour it distilled a massive debate down to its very essence – how much do we really value the biodiversity of our shores?
Back in 2006 environmental concerns tied in with the feeling that our coastline was being sold off into private hands combined to see thousands march against the prospect.
Back in 1993, 3,000 came out against another reclamation scheme for the area.
Many islanders really do care about and are intrinsically connected to the environment around them in a way that those in big cities simply are not.
But environmental protection, besides a few small steps from the States and some larger ones from private interest groups, has not advanced at the kind of pace it needs to.
We are, on a global scale, quite literally consciously destroying our planet.
It is why so many species and habitats are in terminal decline but we are either oblivious to the damage being done, or wilfully ignoring it because the easiest option is not to care.
To localise it, to a dog walker on Richmond it is much more convenient to let their animal run off the lead chasing after birds than follow the advisory signs in place to try to protect a nesting area.
Other dog walkers or beachgoers watch on because they don’t want the conflict – and that is an understandable position.
Government doesn’t enforce any kind of ban so that it doesn’t have to police anything or be seen interfering in people’s freedoms – and besides, there’s enough to do solving Brexit.
Every day there are people walking Guernsey’s beaches picking up the detritus from those who have gone before, or the litter that has been carried in on the tides.
Some smokers think nothing of dropping their fag butt on the floor and stepping on it like that is their responsibility over and done with – no matter it is simply littering with something that will not break down for 15 years.
But back to the winkles.
Actually, back to the ormers and scaly crickets.
Last week the States released a scoping document setting out some of the impacts a new inert waste site at Belle Greve could have – well, it calls it Longue Hougue south but presumably simply because it is less likely to provoke concern in the public consciousness.
This column has argued before that the States is pursuing a flawed strategy, destroying coastline without a plan for what it wants to do with the site once it is full.
It remains only a stop-gap solution – and it’s important to note that the site’s life has dropped by a year to 12 from the 13 that was suggested when the States last debated this.
We will be doing this all again in no time.
But a harbour project, where the land might actually be of value, has been pushed out into deep water and this is the only scheme being seriously scoped.
The scoping document outlines some of the potential impacts ahead of a full environmental impact assessment being done.
They are what you would expect from sticking a load of rocks in the sea.
Waves and tidal currents will be impacted, patterns in sediments being transported disrupted.
The Ramsar site around Herm is a consideration too – but by its nature that designation is not a solid barrier to development.
The report makes a few noises about the potential positive impact through the raising of coastal defences.
If the project had really been designed with that in mind there would be some positives, but it would be being developed much further south nearer the Halfway where the biggest risk to property has long been identified.
The document touches on the impact on recreation, but this is a spot far from the public mind when it comes to walking and relaxation. It shouldn’t be, but it’s tucked away with industry looming large so has become unloved.
There will be more noise and dust, vibrations, lorries, and air pollution.
And then there will be the total devastation of the marine environment.
Back when the Island Development Plan was being worked on, an argument by La Societe Guernesiaise that the foreshore as a whole should be protected as a Site of Special Significance was rejected by the States ‘because the evidence was too vague and such designation would give rise to difficulties applying the legislation by bringing everyday ad-hoc activities such as building a sand castle into the planning system. As such the States considered the designation would be overly onerous in an area with little development pressure.’
Except, as we see now, there is development pressure on the foreshore.
Now we may well see the consequences of that decision for the environment.
Habitats in the area are mostly said to have low ecological significance, although importantly there are a couple with a moderate designation and one of them is rare in the British Isles.
The subtidal habitat has not been surveyed.
We do not know, yet, fully what will be lost.
Other routes of environmental protection are also in the works but still not finalised.
The 2015 Biodiversity Strategy sets out the intention to identify priority species for Guernsey which will then be subject to an action plan to ensure their protection.
Four years on, this has still not happened.
And the scaly cricket didn’t even make it into the strategy.
The shingle habitat within Belle Greve Bay is known for this cricket, Pseudomogoplistes vicentae, which is classified as endangered in Great Britain.
As the scoping document notes, while birds are mobile and can relocate (although it mentions nothing of the stress this causes), ‘slower-moving species such as the scaly cricket may be impacted by the loss of shingle on the foreshore of Belle Greve Bay’.
Survey work is now under way to find out how abundant the cricket is elsewhere in the island, presumably on the basis they can be wiped out here if they have a home at L’Eree.
The area around Spur Point is important for roosting sea birds.
A wintering bird survey is already under way and in the first month identified 26 species in the area.
There is much more to this forgotten corner of Guernsey than it is given credit for.
And then there is a bit of Guernsey heritage that gets a few lines of recognition.
‘The presence of the inert waste facility will result in a reduction of available foreshore for ormering.’
The ormer, Haliotis tuberculata, is itself another potential species that makes it onto the priority list in the Biodiversity Strategy, for which, as mentioned, there is no plan of action.
I fear that the scaly cricket and humble ormer will not make it onto any placards this time. There will be no march along the seafront – islanders have given up on this part of the island.
The States will plough on with no real coherent plan because it is the path of least resistance and they have run the clock down.
And that is a crying shame.
