Meeting planned ahead of possible permanent closure of Hougue Jehannet

The so-called "Hearts and Minds" explanation briefing has been arranged for Wednesday 23 August at the Vale Douzaine room at 6pm when officials from the public utility will set out their reasons for closing the thoroughfare, which run from Summerfield Road through to North Side.

Vale Senior Constable Richard Leale said that after a protracted period Guernsey Electricity had decided to seek to make the temporary closure permanent, which would entail asking the Royal Court for permission to do so.

As part of that process, it had decided to invite parishioners and other interested islanders to the meeting on the 23rd to set out its reasons why the road needed to be closed as a permanent measure and enable those who had concerns to ask questions about those reasons and the process to be adopted for shutting the road.

Site visit
The next stage, under the relevant legislation, would be for the Constables to arrange a public meeting on site at Hougue Jehannet where the company would again set out its reasons for stopping people from using the road and to hear any opposition from individuals or businesses who might be affected by that.

The Constables would then prepare a report of that meeting, which would form part of the submission to the Royal Court for the Jurats to consider whether the case for closure had been made.

No date for that site meeting has yet been set.

Security
Mr Leale said he was pleased that Guernsey Electricity was finally proposing some definitive action on this because the "temporary" closure had been in place for a number of years and several States committees had apparently declined to take matters forward.

"We've been told as a douzaine that the closure is required on grounds of security – but not terrorist-related – and look forward to the Hearts and Minds meeting when we expect more detail on those reasons and an explanation why security can't be improved without total closure or at least retaining foot and bicycle access.

"I hope people take the opportunity to attend as this matter is now coming to a decision point."