BRAYE Harbour will have to be taken out of Alderney’s green belt to allow essential works to take place. If the harbour falls outside the maritime and port security requirements of the Solas (Safety of Life at Sea) convention, which must be implemented by July, international traffic will be banned from entering the harbour.

The island’s only shipping link would be with Guernsey.

Chris Main, deputy chairman of the Building and Development Committee, said that the commercial quay needed repair and refurbishment.

It needs realigning to remove a dog-leg on the northern side, allowing tankers to operate in greater safety and to reduce the difficulties of coming alongside in adverse weather conditions.

As a result, the quay will be widened, cargo handling will be made safer, and freight and passengers segregated.

The committee said that the best way of resolving the matter would be to take the harbour out of the green belt.

‘It is a commercial area, wholly in the ownership of the States, and its placement in the green belt is totally inappropriate,’ said Mr Main.

‘It is a sad state of affairs that world events require a small jurisdiction such as Alderney to introduce considerable security measures at our ports and harbours.

‘They must be implemented as we cannot become a ﾓsoftﾔ way of entering the UK and Europe, nor have our harbour and its shipping vulnerable to terrorism.’