From Freda Ruderham.
THE plans put forward to develop the Watersplash, with lodges for paying guests, makes fighting to keep Jersey as unspoiled as possible a nightmare.

Some Islanders seem to have gone quite mad in their onslaught against the Island’s open spaces. I know the old plea of it being for the good of tourism – that has always been, and still is, the biggest load of horse manure spouted whenever someone wants to build or extend something they know will be controversial.

Make no bones about this, if the building of accommodation is ever allowed anywhere in precious St Ouen’s Bay, the fate of our pride and joy will be sealed for ever.

The proverbial slippery slope will move everything. Every developer this side of Nagaski will be down there measuring up to see how much they can get away with. A plague on them!

For sure, the Splash needs refurbishing, but the owner, once a surfer, should be glad to do it for himself. If the Planning Minister and his team are going to drive a coach and horses through this ‘place of special interest’ by allowing accommodation to be built in the area, making it both higher and wider, the generations to come will wonder what kind of moron allowed the demise of the bay. Once you create a precedent, everything in the area becomes fair game.

The floodgates will finally be open for the money-minded developers. In all the years I have trained down there, I have often looked around and thought the developers would have a field day. They would build huge blocks right round the bay. With one stroke of the pen, it would all be gone for ever.

One can see the damage that has already been done to our Island. Just send one of your wonderful JEP photographers out with his camera and take photos of the Noirmont arm of St Aubin’s Bay and you will see for yourself what destruction is being done in the wake of ministerial decisions.

I wrote to the Planning Minister some time ago about that skyline. He said that the houses would not show because of the trees in front of them. Really? Go and take photos. There are now three clumps of houses on that skyline. The trees have all but gone on the first clump. You just wait and see how conveniently the other ones will disappear.

I do hope the generations of surfers won’t be seduced by the carrot of all the wonderful facilities they will have. However, I would be most surprised if they were jumping over the moon at the prospect of it all. They too, as I, feel the area in their bones. I’ll bet they will not fall for that seduction.

I for one will stand up and be counted. I strongly object to the building of any accommodation in St Ouen’s Bay. Keep it – and all our bays and skylines – sacrosanct.
Andover Lodge,
Petite Rue de l’Eglise,
St Peter.