Thoughts on back yards and Les Vardes

I can understand the feeling of the people living in the area of having a huge change to the environment around them and in some cases losing their scenic view and to some extent privacy.

Unfortunately this happens to nearly all of us at some time in life.

My wife and I have seen huge changes to the area in which we live in the Vale. Since we built our house in 1971 the area around us has been built up with several new housing estates consisting of more than 50 houses within 200 metres of our house. Fortunately for us the area to the north is marshland and would be very difficult to build on.

We have had to put up with the change of a quiet area being built up and becoming very busy. Why is it so difficult for a lot of other people to accept change?

With regard to using Les Vardes as an infill site, this would be the biggest mistake the States could make, and they have made some pretty good ones so far.

Would it not be better to use it for water storage? After all the volume of water would probably be considerably more than what is stored in the reservoir at present.

Pump out Longue Hougue quarry and fill that with rubble. The volume of water in the quarry is not as significant as it would appear, as a good percentage of it is salt water underlying the fresh water on top.

I have a feeling that the total storage in the reservoir, and good water in Longue Hougue, is less than what could be stored in Les Vardes (maybe some whizz kid with a calculator could work it out).

If this is the case then perhaps the area of land behind the ‘wall’ in St Saviour’s could be reclaimed as a very valuable asset to the island.

G. J. DE JERSEY,

Caesarea,

Grandes Marais Road, Vale.