Anyone who has seen the enclosed conveyors at Ronez or at any other quarrying operation will at once have an idea of the scale of development that would be required to lift stone from Petit Bot Bay to the Airport, as proposed by two deputies.

While it is certainly technically possible – there are few engineering challenges that cannot be met with sufficient money being spent – the procurement, erection, operation and final decommissioning of such elevators is no small matter.

And that is assuming such a major development in a sensitive landscape area is approved by Environment and landowners are prepared to facilitate these things marching across their property.

Unfortunately, the States members behind the proposal were reluctant to discuss the details yesterday ahead of a meeting with their colleagues on Friday so it remains unclear how much – if any – preparatory work has gone into the suggestion.

As such, it is difficult at this stage to dismiss the idea out of hand, but it will certainly alarm many islanders, who will regard the ‘solution’ as worse than the actual problem of transporting 300,000 tonnes of aggregate from St Sampson’s to the Airport.

At least that port has a history of handling stone and there is plenty of room at Longue Hougue to stockpile it. Unless the barges coming into Petit Port can be discharged via some sort of floating conveyor, a pier or jetty will be needed at one of Guernsey’s most picturesque bays – and it is likely that the ships would prefer to use the facility in the calmer summer period.

In short, it is clear that while handling thousands of tonnes of stone from a leading island beauty-spot might be technically possible, it would be massively disruptive and deeply unpopular.

Conversely, it is not obvious how significant an impact hundreds of lorry loads of aggregate from Longue Hougue to the Airport will be on a route that has been chosen to minimise the environmental effects.

Most islanders probably will not notice and it is for a short time only.

Overall, then, using Petit Bot looks more damaging than the harm it seeks to avoid.