Harbour plans full of holes
CONGRATULATIONS to Guernsey Harbours for a very skilful PR exercise regarding future harbour development (I hope they had Environment permission for all those flags and banners?), but after much effort in accessing the online survey, which is leading people by the nose to the conclusion they want us to arrive at, it does beggar rather a lot of holes in their thinking.
It's as if they have taken a child into a toy shop and let them have free rein, then when it comes time to pay, stopped the nearest person in the street.
They tell us continually that they have compared us with places in the UK.
I wonder which places so as we can check for ourselves.
Certainly marinas in the UK offer far more for the money than we are being offered here.
And why should the fisherman be excluded from extra charges? The taxpayer has already contributed to the fish quay and grants to the fishermen.
Also, if you look closely at the plans, all the boats that our tourists love to photograph in the pool will go, leaving a huge space on supposed safety grounds for Condor's newly purchased large ship.
Which leads me on to £20m. for a terminal building.
You must be joking, for a building that will see through-put three or four times a day.
The present building is tired, but £20m? Wasn't the airport terminal paid for from general revenue as it benefits everyone?
And £1m. to replace the work boat, which is getting on in age. It fairly recently had new engines. Does it have a hole in it?
This is a general problem the States has with anything a few years old. Depreciation says it's no good and must be replaced, even though there is nothing wrong with it.
I can't help but feel that we will see a mass exodus of small boats from the marinas, but then I suppose that will free up the space for these large craft that harbours wish to encourage, wherever they will come from.
As the owner of a modest boat used for family holidays and therefore a vested interest, I will not leave my name and address.
Name and address withheld.
