All agricultural land should be sacrosanct

Firstly it strikes me that the proposed development is a short-term tactical solution to what should in fact be a strategic issue. Namely that the proposed accommodation and the means by which the field was selected as the best location seems better suited to the housing of short-term agency staff than long-term health professionals who are integrated into our wider community. As I have no insight into the strategic aims of HSC, I simply make this ‘outsiders’ observation.

Of more concern is the desire to build on agricultural land. My starting point in this respect is that all agricultural land, regardless of grade, should be more or less sacrosanct. A few minutes Googling informs me that it takes Mother Nature between 500 and 1,000 years to create an inch of topsoil. In this fast-changing world of ours it would be a brave person indeed who would predict what the island’s food production needs will be in 50, 100 or dare I suggest 1,000 years. Once the top soil is gone its gone for good.

I have noted in the Press the constant comparison made between this rather modest site and the area lost to domestic gardens. Here I beg to differ. Give me a tractor, plough and a spare afternoon and I suspect the majority of these lost gardens could be turned back into productive agricultural land. The same cannot be said regarding a concrete slab with a three or four-storey building sat upon it.

Turning to the selection of this particular site the eligibility criteria seem to me to have been designed to achieve a foregone outcome. If, for example, the criteria for our next chief minister was set as a male, aged between 55 and 60, with a close association to both the island and to Cornwall, who had previously led a Siam Cup-winning rugby side I am fairly confident we would have narrowed the field (no pun intended) down to one – yours truly.

I have been surprised, noting that the States has previously agreed that we need a new dairy and having also agreed that the new dairy could be located at Best Brickfield, that the current dairy site has not featured in the recent discussions.

If speed of delivery is the reason for its omission I would have thought that by the time we have finished with the various planning appeals and unchaining the public protestors from the railings of the proposed site that the dairy may in fact be a speedier option.

Stephen Burt

Pres des Piliers

Rue de la Ree

St Saviour's