THE euphoria that spread through the British Isles in August 1914 as men enlisted in their thousands to fight for King and country spawned a movement know as the Order of the White Feather.

Its sole purpose was to encourage patriots to join up by getting young women to present a white feather to those not in uniform.

It proved so successful that any man seen in public in civilian clothes risked being ridiculed regardless of the essential job he was performing at home.
A white feather was a traditional symbol of cowardice long before the Great War, having been in common usage in the British Army since the 18th century.

Those familiar with the adventure novel The Four Feathers – written in 1902 and subsequently portrayed in four 20th century feature films and a television mini-movie – will recall how an officer accused of deserting his men and presented with four white feathers redeemed his honour with outstanding courage in battle.

The origin of the symbolism of the white feather derives from cockfighting and the perceived qualities of a winning bird. As pure-breed gamecocks never display white feathers in their plumage, it was believed that those which did were inferior and would therefore be poor fighters.

Planning’s decision to throw in the towel yet again in the face of a full-frontal onslaught from developer David Sheppard is an act of cowardice deserving a entire eiderdown’s contents of white feathers.

Over the years, Mr Sheppard more than any other developer has been Planning’s bête noire who has, more often than not, come out on top each time they have locked horns. You have to admire the man’s persistence while abhorring his actions. The demolition of Janvrin’s Farm was unforgiveable.

However, the abysmal failure of the law to bring him to book was the real crime.
This time the department didn’t even wait to confront him in court. With the Law Officers in hot pursuit, they turned tail and ran in the direction of them thar hills without even attempting to form a circle of wagons to repel Mr Sheppard’s legal eagles.

WHY did those public servants charged with upholding the Island’s Planning Law and the policies in the strategic Island Plan designed to prevent inappropriate developments display such a yellow streak?

Their excuse was they could not afford to lose the legal battle he was threatening to mount! Lose? For heaven sakes the law is on their side!

In a community such as ours, where the building of luxury and supposedly iconic houses has become an extremely lucrative career, if not a national pastime, what is the point of waving paper tigers at developers with the financial means to employ clever and cynical lawyers gifted with the rhetoric to shoot holes in the only safeguards in place to prevent this little rock from being covered in very expensive concrete, steel and stone?

The good burghers of St Brelade, supported by a raft of politicians, have been fighting for seven years to prevent Mr Sheppard developing Field 621, the last agricultural field to the west of Route de Noirmont. There is nothing special about it other than the fact that it affords views over Ouaisné and St Brelade’s Bay; and, unlike most once wide-open spaces in this over-developed parish, it remains untouched.

And so it should, because it is in the Green Zone, where there is a strong presumption against development.

There are countless Islanders in every vingtaine (and cueillettes if they reside in the parish that likes to be different, St Ouen) who can attest to how shallow that presumption is increasingly becoming.

If a developer or an applicant is thick-skinned enough, and has pockets sufficiently deep, to keep coming back every time plans are rejected, more often than not he or she will eventually emerge victorious.

Regardless of the guidelines in place to protect the environment, if their hopes are high enough, just like that determined old ram, developers will one day butt a hole in Planning’s dam.

Planning’s decision not to defend their corner in Noirmont has far wider and frightening implication for us all. The department is sending out a message loud and clear to developers and garden grabbers that all they have to do to build anywhere in Jersey is get a fat-cat lawyer, an expert in the idiosyncrasies of planning and property law, and the mere mention of a protracted Royal Court action and it’s time to lay the foundations.

THERE is nothing lawyers like more than precedent, and the one set in the abandonment of Field 621 comes with bells ringing and lights flashing.

Moreover, Planning’s cowardice could create a potentially lucrative division of legal practice as wily lawyers offer ‘no win, no fee’ services to disgruntled applicants whose plans have been dashed. With the current mindset at Planning, all it will take is the threat of court action and it will be like taking candy from a baby.

Underlying this sorry tale is the increasingly obvious fact that money talks in this Island, and I for one do not like what it’s saying.