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24.01.16.
3.4 Connétable M.K. Jackson of St. Brelade of the Minister for the Environment regarding the support of the repair of traditional roadside granite walls damaged in recent storms (OQ.4/2024)
In light of the numerous traditional roadside granite walls that have been damaged in recent storms, will the Minister advise how his department is supporting their repair, and if there is no such assistance in place, whether consideration in being given to providing support for their reinstatement?
Deputy J. Renouf of St. Brelade (The Minister for the Environment):
I am aware that there are still many people struggling with the aftermaths of Storm Ciarán in many respects and, of course, the Connétable is right to highlight that we have spoken a lot about trees, but there was a lot of damage caused elsewhere to other structures in the Island, and that is very important. So in response to the impact of Storm Ciarán, the number of officers available to provide assistance through the planning and building duty service to Islanders with damaged buildings and structures, including traditional roadside walls, was increased and their hours of operation were extended. Assistance was and remains available from officers in the historic environment team to provide specialist advice and assistance for all historic buildings and structures about their repair and restoration as a result of storm damage. Of course, there is also detailed advice available about the repair and maintenance of the Island’s roadside walls, fosses and banques available on the gov.je website through the standard supplementary planning guidance and other guidance notes.
3.4.1 The Connétable of St. Brelade :
I think the Minister is missing my point to a degree in that the bottom line is the cost of repairing roadside walls, and particularly granite walls, of which there are many in the Island. The Minister’s answer did not indicate whether there would be any financial support for that in any shape or form. If I may refer him to a former Member of the Assembly, the late Deputy Norman Le Brocq, who I think I am right in saying, and I have not researched the detail, created a fund to maintain the traditional roadside walls. I would ask him if he would dig out the information on that, with a view to reinstating it for the repair of our walls in perpetuity.
Deputy J. Renouf :
I do not know if it was Deputy Le Brocq, but certainly in 1994 the States allocated £100,000 to roadside walls and banques in a capital vote. However, that money was long spent and there is no money currently in the Government Plan for this kind of thing. What I would say is that this is obviously a matter that would depend to a considerable degree on the extent to which insurance might cover repair works. In the same way that buildings are covered by insurance, it may be that in many cases walls are covered as well. I think we should be cautious about simply making unfunded commitments without knowing the scale of the problem. I will be very happy to engage with the Constable in terms of discovering if there are particular cases of which he is aware that might merit further investigation, and we can help to build up a picture of this as an Island-wide issue to see whether, indeed, the scale of the issue and uninsured losses is something that we should look at further. But I would urge caution in that in the first instance.