THE Horticulture Committee wants its successor to keep talking to Osprey Investments in the hope of resurrecting plans for a hydroponics development in Guernsey. The committee discussed the Island Development Committee’s recent decision to reject the proposal for a herb-processing unit at Sandpiper Vinery, St Peter’s.

‘We would like our successor department [Commerce and Employment] to make contact with the investor company,’ said Horticulture president Bill Robilliard.

‘We felt we’d probably come to the end of our direct involvement and couldn’t commit our successors.

‘However, nothing has changed from the committee’s point of view – we feel this project is of essential value to the island.’

A spokesman for Osprey Investments, part of the locally-based Zouche Group which also owns vitamins-by-post company Healthy Direct, said that it could make a comment in the next two weeks.

Reports that the development the company planned, which could have a £10m. turnover within a couple of years, might move to Jersey if planning permission could not be secured locally, were news to the Jersey authorities.

Deputy Gerald Voisin, president of that island’s Economic Development Committee, said that neither he nor his staff had heard anything of the project.

Douzenier Robilliard said: ‘As far as I, as an individual, am concerned, that [moving to Jersey] was always a danger.

‘To what extent it might have been pursued with the authorities in Jersey I don’t know.’

The president of the Chamber of Commerce was disappointed by the possible collapse of the project.

‘It’s a shame that there doesn’t seem to be a solution. I think it’s bad that a compromise can’t be found,’ said Mark Gill.

He said that it was important for the States to encourage diversity in the economy for employment opportunities.

‘We’ve got to consider that not everybody wants, or is able to work in finance.’

Osprey Investments asked for permission to demolish glasshouses, build a packing and processing unit with ancillary office and laboratory and isolation shed. It also wanted to alter the entrances and create parking at the vinery.

The IDC said that the facility proposed was excessive for the proposed crop production.

The Committee for Horticulture had always supported the proposed development. It said it was essential for the future of the sector.