ONCE again, there seems to be some double-think in relation to the Jersey countryside, the need to protect it and the contradictory idea that new sites in all 12 parishes should be identified for residential development.

On the one hand we have a newly published five-year plan for the rural economy, which stresses the importance of environmentally friendly initiatives. On the other we have a request from Environment Minister Freddie Cohen for the
Constables to identify areas in their parishes where new homes can be built for sheltered accommodation and the Homebuy scheme.

Quite rightly, the five-year plan addresses the issue of reconciling economic progress in the countryside with the preservation of irreplaceable resources. Senator Cohen’s request, however, must be at odds with the idea that further development of rural sites should be resisted whenever this is remotely possible.

It is of course true that the Senator’s hand has been forced to some extent. The draft Island Plan includes proposals for major developments on sites at Longueville Nurseries and Samarès, but these have been stoutly resisted at parish level. This appears to have prompted a radical rethink.

It is conceivable that the Senator is trying to call the resisters’ bluff by presenting an unacceptable alternative, but it is also possible that an important defensive line is shifting once more and that new policies will countenance further erosion of our precious green spaces.

Quite recently, much was being made of the notion that St Helier should be transformed into a place ideal for residency as well as for work and other commercial activity. Given the strict physical limitations that are so obviously and inevitably part of Island life, this principle is founded in common sense – as is the linked idea that those aspiring to home ownership can no longer count on buying the traditional house with garden and garage.

This line of thinking should come to the fore again, not only for the benefit of the environment in general but also to enhance our town to the advantage of all Islanders.

Even if immigration can be kept to an acceptable level, we can expect constant waves of development and redevelopment in urban areas. We can also expect rational use to be made of brown-field sites. What we must not accept is the piecemeal destruction of that most finite of assets – the land we hold in trust for future generations.