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The Constable at the heart of St. Saviour’s ‘cow row’ has admitted getting her fields mixed up ahead of a vote to block the development of up to 90 affordable homes - but says she still won't be moo-ved.
Sadie Le Sueur-Rennard had told States Members that field ‘S530’ was a “beautiful meadow” with grazing cows, hay bales and potatoes growing in it ahead of Friday's vote.
This prompted a member of the family who owns the field, Shona Ringsdore, to accuse the Constable of “grossly misleading” the States Assembly.
She said that there hadn’t been cows or produce grown in the field for decades and that farmers had deemed it to be of limited agricultural value.
Mrs Ringsdore also said that claims from Deputy Kevin Lewis – the St. Saviour representative who proposed removing the field from the list of affordable home sites in the three-year Bridging Island Plan - that a brook ran through the field into Swiss Valley were also untrue.
This week, she wrote to Environment Minister John Young to request that the inaccuracies were “brought to the attention of the Assembly” so that “the necessary corrections are made with a plan for a proper rehearing process”.
On Thursday, Constable Le Sueur-Rennard made a statement to the House apologising for "unintentionally misleading" States Members by saying that cows had been recently grazing in field ‘S530’, off Princes Tower Road, when they had, in fact, been in the next-door field.
Pictured: The access to Field S530 is down a lane off Princes Tower Road.
However, she said she stood by her objection to development.
She said: “I would like to take this opportunity to speak in order to explain that I may have inadvertently misled the Assembly.
“When I was questioned and then I was accused of ‘grossly misleading’ the Assembly in my statement given on Friday 18 March when field 530 was being debated, I asked my works manager to revisit the field on Monday 21 March, after receiving an email from the Minister, Deputy Young.
“When my works manager returned, he advised me that there were cows grazing but they were actually in the adjoining field and there was only a wire dividing them, and when we originally viewed the field, we had mistakenly thought that the cows were grazing in field 530. I hope that clears that up.
“However, there is a brook on the east side of the meadow, which is capped, and the watercourse is still there and runs into Swiss Valley. In fact, this is mentioned in the Draft Island Plan, page 362.
“I would like to apologise to the Assembly for unintentionally misleading them, that I understand that my objection to the fields being filled in and built on still stands, and my only error was cows grazing in the field, for which I am truly sorry.”
Pictured: Mrs Ringsdore says this map from the Bridging Island Plan document does not show any water running through her field.
Mrs Ringsdore told Express that she accepted that the Assembly was not going to change its mind and she would be resubmitting the field for the next Island Plan.
She also said that a map included in the draft Bridging Island Plan showed that there was no stream running through the field and the fact that Constable Le Sueur-Rennard and Deputy Lewis had said it was capped was clear evidence that one did not exist in S530.
"There are no cows!" Owners claim States misled in affordable homes vote
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