From Pete Double, chairman, Action for Wildlife Jersey.
IT seems to me that Jersey’s natural environment is under siege at the moment, even more than it is normally.

Building developments along the Les Mielles coast . . . proposals to extend landfill east of St Helier . . . scrapping the Island Plan and rewriting it because it fails to accommodate the requirements of the current population explosion . . . politicians insisting that encroaching on the green zone is a perfectly reasonable way forward and blaming it all on people living longer (I shall be 70 next birthday so it’s probably all my fault) . . . suggestions that herring gulls are a good excuse to fill in Simon’s sand quarry . . . the ongoing Plémont affair . . .

There are currently so many flagrant attacks on the Jersey environment that it seems almost impossible to take up the gauntlet and fight on so many fronts.

Perhaps that’s the plan, but I am convinced that there are still enough people who care about this Island to make the environmental battle which is worth fighting. I don’t mean scrapping supermarket bags, separating waste and managing a compost bin — most of us have been doing that and advocating such things for years.

What we must do is make future government aware that the word ‘environment’ is not just agile frogs, barn owls, bats and red squirrels. Jersey is the environment, and it’s the only one we’ve got!

A mix of narrow country lanes, agricultural landscapes, a priceless intertidal zone, the woodland valleys and, of course, the fauna and flora that share it with us is what creates the environment. These things are worth defending, despite 100,000 vehicles on the roads, building development gone mad and an out-of-control population.

I would personally hate to see any of the ribbon development which has so blighted Guernsey reproduced here in Jersey, but at least Guernsey can point its visitors in the direction of the other unspoiled islands within its bailiwick. We only have one island!

But let’s not forget that we also have one vote, and when would-be politicians, or those looking for re-election, use ‘the environment’ as part of their political platforms, we must ask some penetrating questions. It will be the only way to discern whether their views are just a sop to the voter or whether the person has a genuine feeling and understanding for environmental affairs.

We need to support candidates who will be tough enough to maintain their environmental views (and promises) when confronted by wily old civil servants in the Planning or Housing departments or elder statesmen who know their way around government and cling to their own agendas, which may or may not include environmental matters.

Election time is almost upon us. Go to the meetings, ask the right questions, and try to get some genuinely aware people into government. We really do need all the help we can get.
The Old Coach House,
La Ruelle,
St Lawrence.