Longue Hougue dock to handle airport stone
Tuesday 13th September 2011, 2:29PM BST.
Longue Hougue reclamation site where Public Services wants to set up a dock to import stone for the airport runway project. (Picture by Brian Green)
LONGUE Hougue could be transformed into a temporary dock if a planning application is approved.
Public Services has submitted the request as part of the £80.4m. runway project which will see at least 250,000 tonnes of aggregate shipped into the reclamation site.
The application, which was submitted separately because it needed its own environmental assessment, also calls for temporary accommodation to be built for up to eight staff: security and night workers.
The project’s preferred contractor, Lagan Construction Ltd, had to withdraw plans to house an expected 150 imported staff at Longue Hougue after Environment confirmed it was a key industrial area.
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Three or four months ago someone quite rightly posted that if we are going to build a’temporary’ dock for the incoming aggregate would it not be prudent to build it so that it can also be used as the dock for the outgoing rubbish on its way to the starving Jersey incinerator
Or is that two separate jobs with two separate budgets?
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Ray
You have no place on these pages….. The things you say make far too much sense!
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Sounds good PS! I can’t wait ’till this runway is finished – gonna make such a difference to my life. Keep up the awesome work!
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I’d be interested to know whether the 80.4 million contract includes re-surfacing of all the arterial roads between Longue Hougue and the Airport?….
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And if they did erect a concrete plant and continued to import aggregate after the Airport project we could have reasonable priced concrete to build reasonablily priced homes.Its Win Win at Longue Hougue.
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I’m wondering why Ronez can’t supply the aggregate needed?
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@Ray, agree with you there, and have written to the Environment department stating as much too.
Joined up thinking… got to start somewhere and saving money between projects is a good start.
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To follow on from your excellent example Ray, on Radio Guernsey this morning another clear case of unjoined up thinking from PSD. The former Manor Hotel lodging house for workers is a stone’s throw from the airport. The proprietors have offered this accommodation to PSD/Langan. Yet the department appears intent on not using the Manor and instead insists on housing ALL the incoming workers on new, purpose build temporary accommodation on an old vinery site near the Mallard instead.
Okay, the Manor might not have enough rooms for all the imported workers but for god’s sake fill it up first and then put up enough temporary rooms to house the rest. Or am I missing something here?
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@ Matrino, Probably missing a bit of back scratching.
Is this a back door way of also getting a change of use on the vinery site as once used for accommodation, etc.
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@Observant wrong type of stone apparently need lime stone not granite.
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Martino,
I don’t think that PSD actually has much of a say as to where/how the incoming workers get housed as from listening to previous discussions on this topic, the responsibility for providing accommodation is undertaken by the contractor in accordance with the conditions of the contract and are thus reflected in the costs.
I’m guessing that Lagan providing their own accommodation (presumably in portable units that they have used elsewhere) would be significantly cheaper than providing their employees with lodgings at The Manor or other such similar establishments.
Let’s also not forget that whilst the proprietors ‘offering’ use of The Manor may well have the interests of the whole island at heart….their proposal would benefit their own pockets the most.
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I accept half of what you say Karen but the fact is that by using the Manor and other locally owned and run lodging places, cash from this crazily overpriced but necessary project will be fed back into the island economy. Whichever way you look at it, it is madness to bring in and erect temporary accommodation for the 150 guest workers when there is room to house them in an existing building a stone’s thrown from the airport. PSD should have insisted that Langan’s must use all available existing accommodation, providing it is reasonably priced, and Environment should throw out any application for use of the Mallard vinery site. I’m actually considering placing an objection myself if PSD cannot come up with a reasonable explanation for this ridiculous situation.
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John – I can’t understand why they need limestone and didn’t get an answer when I asked at a drop in. Hmmm.
Limestone is porous and errodes.
Perhaps someone else knows the reason?
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Ray’s comment is dead on – ships coming in with aggregate, going off with rubbish to Jersey’s incinerator: makes perfect sense. And why build accommodation if there are buildings in situ waiting for custom? Langan are supposed to be doing the work for Guernsey, using all of Guernsey’s industries and resources. I bet they will take advantage of Guernsey employment laws for its employees (sick joke that they are) and perhaps use Guernsey’s delicious tax rates to keep the project offshore and therefore make it much more profitable than onshore….
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Do we really believe this dock will be ’temporary’?
There are long term plans here.
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The much debated accommodation block ‘village’ to house all 150 imported workers may well be the preferred option as it’s cheaper, but it is most definitely not the best option for the island – or the workers – and for very good reasons.
1. The vinery (belonging to a Forest Douzanier), is most definitely NOT ‘derelict’, but clearly, visibly functional, so any insinuation that it is ‘making good use of an old vinery site’ (therefore ‘justifiable’) is completely untrue.
2. It is located next to the Mallard complex, and backs directly onto Le Rondin School. It is also close to the Forest Primary School.
– the workers will apparently be super vetted, however, no assurances can be given regarding what these 150 complete strangers (to each other), working in a rather stressful situation, crammed into a field in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do and nowhere to go close by – apart from 3 local hostelries – might do in the next two years.
3. Reassurances have been given that this large 150 strong ‘village’ will be strictly monitored by the contractor.
– should there be any noise nuisance or public disturbance, can we then presume there will be an easily contactable Lagan representative, suitably equipped to deal with the situation and available day and night, to sort it out, and that a nightmare scenario involving the Police being constantly called out there is just an imagining? I can only hope so.
4. The vinery opens onto an incredibly dangerous road, favored by our local Kev runners and distinctly lacking in pavements and street lighting. Reportedly, there will be no danger, as each and every one of the workers are going to be ‘mini-bussed’ to and from the site.
– will they also be available 24/7 to ferry them to and from the pubs and the takeaway at all times of the day and night along that dangerous road for their ‘safety’? I wonder.
5. This will add yet MORE traffic flying past BOTH SCHOOLS.
The Parish has tried repeatedly over the past 12 years to get traffic calming measures installed after several ‘near misses’ on this already congested arterial road, full of busy and often frustrated commuters, that is soon to be further congested 150 PER CENT (to quote PSD) with those enormous lorries every 15 minutes for the next two years.
- perhaps when there IS a tragic accident, they’ll do something about it then. Fingers crossed!
6. The owner of the Manor Hotel has very reasonably offered Lagan the same rate for the whole period of the work (of course she would profit, as would other Hotels, but at least the money would be going back into the economy), but in return, Lagan don’t appear remotely interested.
Housing workers at the nearby Hotels would benefit our local economy, and ensure their staff can be more comfortably accommodated in establishments that are suitably geared up for their requirements, however, housing workers in temporary huts in a field and providing an on site canteen on the other hand, is (perhaps), slightly cheaper.
– the ‘reasoning’ behind this is obvious (for Lagan), but does not make it right for the rest of the island or the workers.
Once the vinery has been allowed to have temporary accommodation on it for two years, the owner may choose to further engage his ‘entrepreneurial skills’ by approaching GHA or a developer, then we can all look forward to the huts being replaced by a housing estate, so at least someone could benefit from all this.
It will not be until this project cranks into action that we all realise just how much all this talk was actually worth, and get the answers to the many questions we still have.
Don’t take my word for it, come to the next Forest Douzaine meeting, with PSD in attendance, see the plans, and ask them for yourselves.
– I would particularly recommend this to anyone in the island who’s on the lorries ‘route’, as it has already been established that neither your HH insurance or PSD will be accountable for any damage to your property, but that Lagan will…so perhaps this will be a golden opportunity to get their address for future claims (which I wish you luck with).
See you there…!
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..and of course, the one very obvious (but perhaps considered minor, by Lagan’s standards) reason for not setting up a ‘village’ on a vinery is that it is it direct contravention of existing planning Laws and the RAP that the rest of us have to live by…!
PSD may not have ‘control’ (therefore ‘accountability’) for Lagan’s major decisions such as this one, but Environment most certainly does, and I will be interested to see their view on Lagan’s plans, and if approved, their reasoning behind it…
if a single telephone mast located at a Lande de Marche vinery is refused as it is considered ‘incongruous’ and a ‘potential health risk’ by our own Forest Deputy/Head of Environment, then I look forward to his Dept’s thoughts on what they consider two enormous, noisy, smelly, air/light polluting concrete and asphalt silos, located on green zoned prime growing land, pumping out dust and asphalt fumes 24/7 for two years or so, located next to 2 Primary schools and in a highly residential area, PLUS 150 strong ‘workers village’ on a working vinery…
judging this by their own Laws and eagerness, to date, to enforce the RAP and keep redundant vineries as just that, BOTH these applications should be refused, unless, of course, the rules don’t apply to Lagan…!
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forestflo
Don’t bank on a rejection.Environment insist that old decrepit vineries should resort to growing carrots and cabbages and yet somehow a very large data park which will employ tens of people has managed to get through
Strange that
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Ah, Ray, how very very true.
I really do hope that you and the others here who are the brave few not scared to speak sense or raise their heads above the parapet will attend the upcoming Meeting with PSD…
now THAT would be a real douzy of a Douzaine meeting! ;0)))
ps I will be wearing a red freesia and carrying a copy of the Beano.
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