Do something useful with our inert waste
INERT waste is seen as a nuisance to be got rid of, but it should be seen as an asset rather than a liability and be used to create something useful. The current scheme is to dump it more or less out of sight at the southern end of reclamation site Longue Hougue or, to put it another way, at the northern end of Belle Greve Bay, which does not meet universal approval.
In the Guernsey Press of 22 March, you reported that a requete was submitted by six deputies proposing that major improvements be made to St Peter Port harbour and that it be extended out from the east wall to provide a much greater area for freight handling. Four days later the Guernsey Boat Owners Association put forward similar proposals.
Now Captain Peter Gill, retired harbour master and surely an authority on all harbour operations, makes similar recommendations, and not for the first time.His description of our harbour as being ‘19th century structures, with 20th century work practices, trying to solve 21st century problems’ is a very telling indictment of our lack of forward planning.
The proposal is to create a badly needed area for use by the harbour authorities and perhaps marine businesses as large as the Queen Elizabeth Marina, and at the same time, allowing 200 parking spaces to be returned for public use. Why we would want to create an even larger sea of parked cars wasting acres of valuable space instead of creating a revenue-earning park under that vast area defies belief. There would also be the opportunity to make a berth for smaller cruise ships to disembark passengers directly to the land instead of plying back and forth in tenders, surely a greater encouragement for more to come ashore, to our economic benefit.
All kinds of tortuous enquiries will be needed for this to go ahead, and at great cost, but when the States of the 19th century decided to build the harbour did they wait for extensive surveys, public consultations, hydrographic surveys and planning permission? I doubt it. They just went ahead and did it and in doing so created one of the finest small harbours in Europe.
What are we waiting for?
B. MAUGER
St Peter Port.