Fish left in car at Cobo is just rotten business
Thursday 4th June 2009, 2:29PM BST.
Deputy Barry Paint with a rotten fish that has been left in an abandoned car at Cobo car park. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0784008)
COBO residents have been left disgusted after rotten fish has been dumped in one of the abandoned cars at the car park near Checkers.
The subsequent stench can be smelt from all around the area and has left many customers and passers-by feeling nauseous.
Castel senior constable Barry Paint said he could only presume that the fish had been dumped in the vehicle in protest at the ongoing dispute about who owns the land.
‘Environmental Health won’t help us, so I am waiting for a call from the authorities to see if I am allowed to move it myself,’ said Deputy Paint, yesterday morning.
‘If I get permission I will cancel a meeting I have tonight and I will move it.’
Checkers Guernsey operations manager Kenny McDonald said he had received a number of calls from staff based at the Cobo store, next to the car park.
‘We are still trying to find out who put the fish there,’ he said.
‘I can’t see why Environmental Health won’t help as it will become a health risk. I believe the smell is unbearable and with the warm weather it will only get worse.’
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When, oh when is this mess at Cobo going to be sorted out? I believe there are legal implications etc but we need a solution soon with the summer on us.
How about the States compulsorily acquiring the land for £1, assuming they don’t already own it, clearing the cars and restoring it to its rightful state as a public area. Probably not legally acceptable but as it appears to be a feudal matter we could apply medieval principles – the States are the superior feudal landlord so should just elbow everyone aside and say “this is ours and we are giving it over to public use”. Job done.
I jest of course but perhaps we need a few more down to earth solutions. Or we could bring in the CM to sort it out!
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What a suprise the guernsey press blaming it on the States – and the Health Department of all people! If its not injurious or likely to be injurious its not a Health Dep problem! Only in Guernsey, honestly.
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Come on Cobo Boys, its time for some direct action – do something about this ridiculous situation. I bet the L’Eree lot wouldn’t tolerate it…
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It would appear the states of Guernsey don’t really care about tourism, wrecked cars with dangerous body-work an eyesore and danger to all who use cobo village.I feel that Checkers and other shop owners are themselves partly to blame for this mess. You see, they have had people parking and using their shops for the last 25 years yet not once have they asked who owns that piece of land. For fear that they may have had to buy it or pay towards expensive maintenance? So how can we fix this? Put simply we can’t, the States took their eye off the ball and someone nicked it and scored a golden goal,its totally slack, the people that bought that land can do what they like with the land because..THEY OWN IT!
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JM – how did the State take the eye off the ball? You cannot “nick” land, you can only acquire it from a rightful owner. We don’t have squatters’ rights here. Either the land is owned by someone or it is common land.
The States should launch an enquiry inviting anyone to prove that they own the land. If someone does not step forward with a conveyance or act of court which shows that they are the owner, then the States should declare it to be States land.
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So Barry Paint has to wait for a call to see if it is legal to remove the fish.
But entering private property ( the car ) along with the press to take a photo is perfectly fine …..
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For the last few weeks I have tried parking to get some groceries, fish & chips, newspapers but each time could not park and ended up going elsewhere. Now I do not even drive past and probably lots of people doing the same.
If the guy does own the land then you can not compulsary buy it for £1 – How would you like it if they did that to your property? An agreement needs to be made and if the shops are losing business (they have lost mine)then commercially they are the ones who need to improve their parking. One thing that does look fishy is that I think the states do realise he does own the land else why would this dispute have taken so long???
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According to today’s Press, he claims to have bought it from his mother early last year. Does someone have access to the records of the Conveyancing Court, because as I understand it, unless the sale was confirmed in the court he does not own it. Then we need to work out whether his mother owns it – surely that can be discovered as well.
We need someone to grasp the nettle again – time for the Press to call in the CM??
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Last thing you want is disruptive LT involved. Everything he touches either doesn’t work, or costs us millions. Here’s a list:
0/10 90m/annum
tankers 16m + maintenance
firefighters £120k/annum
Fallagate £2.4million
Fishing dispute – unknown
He is an utter disaster and as soon as he is got rid of the better. In all my long years I have never met any local politician so devisive.
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I was actually going down there myself to take those fish out (I would not wait for permission) then an hour before I was going to leave they announced that someone had removed them.
AAARRRGGGGHHH, I am sick and tired of this Cobo car park fiasco, the states are too soft in the head to do anything about it. It is like some mafia boss putting the cars there to get their own back on us people of Guernsey because his ownership of the car park has not gone to plan.
If we all went down and towed the cars into the road the states and the police would have to do something about it because they would be blocking the road. I do have big respect for the police by the way, they are wonderfull. The states on the other hand, are another matter!
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