My problem with encouraging development at Plemont is the road network both there and all the way to town. It used to be that traffic jams were perhaps not welcomed but a gently tolerated problem caused by hire cars, but now, with the developers extending their tendrils further and further from town the effects are simple a depressing nuisance that diminishes our quality of life.

I think every development should have a “Roadmiles” measure attached – calculate how much road occupancy it will cause. Base it on (average number of occupants employed in town x working days x miles from town) + (average other occupants x mileage). Obviously its a tricky formula, though I bet the States have paid a consultant one million pounds somewhere along the line to figure it out. Or now will do. And I’m sure wildly different calculations could be produced,  depending on who creates them. Developers for instance would probably calculate an environmental bonus whilst car hating vegans will say that its contributing to our demise – which it probably is even if you eat meat. However, putting homes in the farthest point from town, and encouraging suburban spread in the west despite employment density being greatest in the east can’t be good. And I live in the west, and already have to deal with gridlock most weekends around St. Peter. I don’t want another 28 Land Rover Discoveries between me and the co-op thanks.

Also, Jersey only has so much open space on the inside and uninterrupted tracts of green land are therefore especially valuable to the environment. If we allow development of the Plemont site, or rather don’t stop it in favour of reverting it to nature, we all lose something. Well, all except the 28 home owners that might end up there.

So – let us help the National Trust buy the land. Houses can go anywhere, but no matter how much we huff and we puff, once its re-developed we will never – and I mean never, blow it down.