Depletion of our precious agricultural land is wrong

I HAVE sent the following to all our deputies – if you agree please also contact deputies. The requete is likely to be debated in the States on Thursday. All their email addresses can be found at www.gov.gg/contactstatesmembers

When I was a child my father and I would ride from our home in the Forest to Vazon hardly encountering a road. My father knew most of the farmers and landowners who were happy for us to take our horses across their fields which were mostly grazed by cattle. Since then, some 60 years later, much of that agricultural land has disappeared, subsumed by homes and other buildings.

I completely understand the need for key worker housing but surely there are brownfield sites and redundant buildings (many already in States ownership) which can be used for this purpose? It can’t be right to continue to deplete our precious agricultural land, which forms Guernsey’s very beating heart. We should be finding ways to protect, encourage and extend agricultural and horticultural opportunities in Guernsey – in the current geopolitical climate food sustainability should be top of our agenda.

I urge you please to support Deputy Falla’s requete. I firmly believe that agricultural land should not be used by the States, the GHA or private developers for staff accommodation or any other ‘build’ use. Once we have lost the beating heart of our island we will never get it back.

MARGUERITE TALMAGE

St Pierre du Bois