Deputy should not be frightening the construction industry

He describes us as ‘myopic’ and, on the BBC, as ‘irresponsible’. Quite the reverse is true. We take our responsibilities very seriously.

To recap, the committee this week turned down, by a majority, a planning application on behalf of Guernsey Waste to create a mountain of inert waste on the Longue Hougue site. Briefly, the plan was to spend three years building up an unsightly pile (involving about 140 truckloads per day); and then to spend the next three years removing most of it with a similar number of trucks, subject to a small percentage left behind for a bund around the perimeter. This would tie up the site for at least six years, likely more if no permanent proposals for waste disposal come forward.

The negative planning decision was based upon provisions in the Island Development Plan relating to the development of the St Sampson’s harbour area. A formal announcement will be published shortly.

Aside from those technical reasons, one should stand back and look at these proposals more generally. The unbelievable cost and inefficiency of double handling this waste, doubling up on truck traffic, dust etc.

We should by now have a permanent solution in place. Deputies Roffey, as president of STSB, and de Saumarez, as president of Environment & Infrastructure, should have been working on solutions to bring to the States. But nothing. So we are left in a ridiculous situation. There are a number of sites for consideration, Longue Hougue South, Les Vardes Quarry, Longue Hougue Quarry and Black Rock. All have their challenges but a proposal, properly costed, must be brought to the States ASAP.

So what to do in the interim? The Planning Committee has not just turned down the sub-optimal application from Deputy Roffey. We also made the suggestion for an alternative temporary solution, which could definitively end in a period shorter than six years and mitigate our planning concerns, namely to use the inert waste (concrete, subsoil etc) to spread over a larger part of the site with a view to raising its level permanently; thus obviating the need to remove all of it again, saving expense and giving the site more resilience from flooding in the long term.

Deputy Roffey really should spend time engaging with us rather than the media. He certainly should not be frightening the construction industry with the shutting down of waste disposal. That will only happen if he foolishly makes it so.

DEPUTY JOHN F DYKE

john.dyke@deputies.gov.gg