Precious green fields should be protected
THERE WILL always be environmental philistines and the States of Guernsey certainly has its fair share, as can be seen by their proposal to build on yet another untouched green field.
It is sad that some of our elected politicians appear to be so ignorant or lazy (or just plain thoughtless) that instead of trying to preserve our green spaces and the ecology they support for this and future generations (among other things they are important carbon-sinks in the fight against global warming) they wish to take the easy option and build their houses on them.
Important though it may be to build more accommodation for health care staff, this proposal for housing on the field between the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Elizabeth Hospital is the lazy solution to a difficult problem. The proposed siting is not the right answer to the problem, it is the wrong one.
However, the philistines see no reason why they should not destroy another untouched area of greenery. One of the proposers even justified his decision with the juvenile argument that it is not a problem because the PEH itself was built on green fields. So, that’s alright, then.
Green fields are precious in many ways and this is recognised by increasing numbers of people. One has only to look at how many people protest the destruction of such sites not only in Guernsey but in Jersey and our neighbours in France.
In Jersey, after the populace protested the decision, the politicians agreed to re-site their new hospital onto developed land rather than on their preferred site, amenity green field in St Helier. In St Malo the citizenry are protesting about the siting of their new hospital on ‘terres agricoles’, so perhaps the philistines over here might just stop and think for once.
Surely it is time for States members, present as well as future, to realise that green land in this island is limited and each time a ‘little bit’ of land is lost, it is gone for ever. These bits add up to ‘a lot’. Deputies should realise that if the States sanction this proposal it will give developers the green light that the States don’t care about preserving green fields, with obvious results. Increasing numbers of the Guernsey public recognise this, so should States members.
Instead of taking the lazy way out by building on green fields, they should look at other sites which have already been despoiled or properties already in existence.
TONY LEE