RUNNING almost a year behind schedule, the Guernsey Tomorrow project is at risk of predicting its own distant completion date.

It is no doubt the huge scale of the operation that has delayed the arrival of stage three of this grand exercise in democracy and blue-sky thinking.

But now that 700 islanders have been consulted, 32 headline statements debated and 50 ‘good, bad and ugly’ issues slotted into place, the project is starting to move beyond the think-tank and into the real world.

This will be its most difficult period. Loose ideas for how the island should develop have now become concrete enough to raise strong objections but lack the detail that will presumably accompany next year’s States report.

And, as with all big plans, Guernsey Tomorrow’s initial offerings will provoke more passion from those who are wholly opposed than those broadly in favour.

It will take genuine commitment to the process from those involved and the States members who instigated it to avoid being blown off course by the howls of disapproval which will greet the most radical schemes.

That is not to say that islanders have no right to object to ideas put forward for general viewing under the Guernsey Tomorrow banner. That, too, is a key part of the democratic process embraced by its advocates.

But it is important that bold ideas have a chance of survival, despite scepticism. If ideas are shelved at the first sign of dissent it will only be the mundane that survive.

And what purpose can there be in embarking on such a massive trawl for good ideas if the end result is close to the status quo?

It is in that pioneering spirit that islanders should view the ‘exposition of ideas and opinions’ over the next week or so. It is all too easy to dismiss out of hand ideas which, given a fair wind, might have some merit.

Even then, given the lack of cash in the States coffers, it is hard to see how grand visions such as shifting the axis of Town to the north or developing the piers will ever come about.