WHAT price can be put on our coastal landscape? That is the fundamental question facing States Members this week as, for the third time, they are called upon to ensure that the Plémont headland is brought into public ownership and returned to nature.

The answer, of course, is that the Island’s environment and natural heritage are beyond price, and it should be simple enough for them to reach the conclusion that the sum eventually required to buy out the property developer standing in the way of such a desirable outcome will be a bargain, even with funds being relatively hard to find in the current economic climate.

Hard, but very far from impossible. The owners of the long-derelict holiday camp foolishly allowed there in less environmentally aware times want to replace it with a housing development, but they are willing sellers of the land if the price is right.

Being in the business of land and property speculation, they are currently asking more than many – including former Planning president Pierre Horsfall, whose view was expressed in a helpful intervention last week – believe it to be worth. However, a realistic valuation will bring the asking price down, and while it may still be substantial, this Island can afford to buy the headland.

To put the deal into context, it will cost a sum equivalent to a tiny fraction of the annual States salary bill to protect in perpetuity this extensive coastal heathland of stunning beauty, rare tranquillity and international environmental significance. The money is available in the public reserves held by the States on our behalf and there is no doubt, as today’s remarkable pledge of £1m from an anonymous donor makes clear, that public subscription would also play a big part in raising the necessary funds.

An injection from the fiscal stimulus fund would also be fully justified, given that tourism in Jersey has no future other than through the promotion of the Island’s cultural and natural heritage, and that returning the area to nature could provide worthwhile work for many people.

The real question for States Members this week, then, is not so much whether they can afford to buy Plémont, using compulsory purchase if necessary, as whether they can afford not to. This is an unrepeatable, once-in-two-lifetimes opportunity which they must seize decisively if they wish to maintain any credible claim to care about the environment or the kind of Jersey that will be bequeathed to future generations.

The Council of Ministers, whose mysterious foot-dragging despite two previous States votes in favour of acquiring Plémont has forced the Constable of St Ouen, reinforced by very clear expressions of public opinion, to come back again to the States, should have less to say in future about their much-vaunted ‘joined-up government’ if they cannot manage to bring this long-running, but ultimately very simple, issue to the conclusion that Jersey wants and deserves.