Speaking after a similar reaction from the Council for the Protection of Jersey’s Heritage – expressed in a letter to the editor of the JEP published yesterday – the chairman of the Jersey branch of the Men of the Trees, Michael Munz-Jones, said that the council’s view was particularly surprising in view of the National Trust’s Coastal Campaign – which the association fully supported – and over 5,000 signatures already obtained from the public in favour of the land being returned back to heath land.
Speaking personally, Mr Munz-Jones said he believed there were already enough golf courses in the Island enjoyed by a limited number of people.
If a golf course was created at Plémont there would be a need for large amounts of water to keep it up to standard, and an impact on bird life in the area if pesticides were used to keep it green, he said.
The public greatly enjoyed the walks on the north coast of the Island and the return of Plémont to heath land would be a natural extension of that facility.
In the letter to the JEP from the Council for the Protection of Jersey’s Heritage, its chairman, Jurat Nick Herbert, said they believed there was a moral and legal obligation by the States to preserve that part of the coast ‘as a priceless natural heritage asset for the enjoyment of future generations, in perpetuity’.
