St Sampson’s douzaine is expected to comment on Tuesday about its sudden volte face over granting a rather meaningless piece of paper without which the Long Port Group would theoretically be unable to develop its multi-million pound data centre at the Salt Pans.

The cynic might think that the delay is to give its members sufficient time to come up with a form of words to try to explain what on earth they were up to.

The reality is that it won’t.

The good news is that the douzaine or its advisers decided to heed the Deputy Bailiff’s advice to settle the matter out of court.

The bad is that their capitulation confirms that their decision to try to withhold a bornement – permission to develop within nine metres of a road – was feckless and ultimately indefensible.

It is unlikely that the real reasons for that will come out, especially since the junior constable was said in court to have conceded in a telephone call that they had been advised to grant it.

Nevertheless, parishioners would be well advised to pursue the matter with their constables for, while this newspaper is very supportive of the parochial system, this matter has been reputationally damaging and someone is out of pocket as a result.

What it also does is question the whole validity of the bornement permits, a 1930s throwback to before there were proper planning laws, and whether they can trump – as St Sampson’s tried – States development permissions.

The other aspect is, if they can, what right of appeal or challenge does a property owner have over that? The Royal Court was doubtful that it could, although that has not been tested, but it is clearly unsatisfactory if a group of people can, unchecked and possibly without cause, thwart someone’s enjoyment of their property.

Given the island’s planning and building control laws, one wonders what purpose or validity bornements now serve – other than to generate fees for the douzaine.

If all other States permissions are in place, would the Law Officers really prosecute someone for going ahead without parish say-so?

St Sampson’s really has opened a can of worms.