LIKE it or not, it now seems evident that the Island must press ahead with the plan for the new energy-from-waste plant – otherwise known as an incinerator – to be sited at La Collette.

There might be a substantial body of opinion which, with conviction and a range of powerful arguments, says that it should not be too late for a change of mind, but the available figures indicate that the cost of that change would be too great to contemplate. Laudable as the motives of the political alliance opposed to the incinerator undoubtedly are, its members should accept that we are too far down the road to consider turning back.

Moreover, the plain fact is that the Island is in desperate need of a facility to replace the plant at Bellozanne which, manifestly, is on its last legs. But none of this means that the incinerator programme is anything like a satisfactory example of how public funds can be spent to best advantage.

We learned recently that the astonishing sum of £4 million has been shelled out on consultancy fees for the project. Before that, we learned that failure to hedge for currency fluctuations had added substantially to the cost. To make matters worse, we have now painted ourselves into a corner to the extent that a massive industrial building is, almost certainly, going to be erected in a prominent position near the sea ‘gateway’ to the Island.

The combination of the new incinerator, La Collette chimney and the highly dubious collection of architecture currently to be seen on the Waterfront will make our visitors wonder what sort of place they have come to. It has been suggested that, as an example of the latest in industrial architecture, the new building will be in some sense iconic and even admirable. If this is really going to be the case, the artist’s impressions so far produced have done the designers a grave disservice.

Short of surrounding the incinerator with landscaping and as much vegetation as possible, it is hard to see what can be done to minimise the impact of its massive profile. Also, even if the structure could be lost in a forest, residents of the Havre des Pas area would still have to put up with a facility on their doorstep which, ideally, would be as far from human habitation as possible.

It is hard to escape the conclusion that although we have a potential solution to a problem, compromises have been made and ideals have been sacrificed in favour of expediency.