Common cash saves day

By Nigel Baudains

INCREASED funding will be the saving of L’Ancresse Common. The States agreed in the Budget debate to give an extra £5,000 to the Commons Council for 2008, restoring funding to its 2004 level of £30,000.

Council president George Domaille said that without extra money the area would have suffered.

‘The whole of the common would have gradually deteriorated,’ he said.

‘We have had complaints, a lot of them, about the condition of the car parks, but we just haven’t had the money to do anything about it.’

Regrading and resurfacing one car park could cost £5,000, he said, and there was also the gorse-management programme.

‘When we had a fire in the Fort Doyle area a couple of years ago, it made it obvious that gorse too close to properties was a fire risk,’ he said.

‘Because of that we started a management programme, but we just haven’t been able to complete it.’

The coastal paths also needed maintaining.

Mr Domaille said the council was grateful to deputies Dave Jones and Brian de Jersey for taking the amendment to the States and to all the members who supported it.

‘The council has always worked under a very tight budget and adopts a good housekeeping policy which ensures there is never any overspend and a small amount is always kept for emergencies,’ he said.

In 1991, the States recognised that the common needed a substantial amount of money and the council was granted £15,000 per year. This was not index-linked and it stayed the same until 2001, when it was increased to £30,000, plus RPI. But in 2005 the sum was cut back to £25,000 - a reduction of some 19%.

‘We accepted it reluctantly because we knew that times were hard,’ said Mr Domaille.

In the past two years, the council had repeatedly asked Environment for the grant to be set at £30,000, but this had always been rejected and Mr Domaille said that further negotiations seemed pointless.

‘Had the grant been maintained in accordance with the States resolution of 2001, it would stand closer to £38,000 for 2008,’ said Mr Domaille.