Why were we not told about this huge artificial ‘headland’ filled with incinerator ash?

Such a serious mound of earth must, you’d be tempted to suggest, have been constructed as much to cover material deemed in need of concealment, as simply to ‘landscape’ the site – from which, for health and safety reasons, the public are denied access.

We’d do well to get used to large earthworks, and not the sort which, like La Houge Bie, are destined to be dug up by successive generations in search of evidence of ancient civilisation.

It may have come out of the blue for most of us, but courtesy of the JEP, complete with the usual ‘artist’s impression’ that signals something’s going to have a significant impact, came the first inkling of the island’s proposed new feature: the prospect of a huge artificial ‘headland’ filled with incinerator ash, stretching out to sea from La Collette, the length of the reclamation site, rising over 20metres above sea wall level and taking 30 years to complete.

I suppose the cynics would dismiss the disclosure as inevitable, given the predictable tendency for local mega projects to grow into something far more grandiose than originally approved and, when eventually revealed, be presented as a virtual ‘fait accompli’. But it does raise a series of questions.

Where has this ‘new’ requirement come from? Was it always going to be necessary to bury so much ash? If so, why was it not publicised earlier – certainly at the time the project was being debated by the States and in the general community, when controversy raged over the sheer size of the development and its position alongside a fragile marine environment? Conspiracy theorists are already preparing their barbs. They’ve been disagreeably surprised, so, at best, they suspect ignorance and incompetence, at worst, concealment and perfidy.

The subject of the ash produced by the EfW plant was always an issue. It’s an inevitable by-product of incineration and there’s little you can usefully do with it.

Two sorts of ash are produced from the industrial burning process, bottom ash – the familiar residue found at the bottom of the grate in domestic coal fires, (though this mixture contains traces of metals and other ‘nasties’ people just can’t help throwing in their bins), and top ash – the stuff which can fly up into the atmosphere, mix with the air and be distributed over a wide area.

You could say the new EfW plant is a victim of its own efficiency since the majority of the airborne substances which have been escaping from the Bellozanne chimney are now being captured by the improved filtering process.

But because of the toxins and residues present, this material has to be kept separate from the bottom ash – and, we’re told, international conventions prevent it from being shipped off-island if it can be stored here.

Well clearly it can be – assuming the seaside mountain range can accommodate it. By 2011 the reclamation site had already received 70,000 tonnes from Bellozanne and, latterly, La Collette, in special sealed sacks piled in ‘cells’ or huge open topped earth mounds, lined with protective material and awaiting the passage of time and the elements to render their contents inert.

Once again, much of the non-technical argument comes down to scale, and security. TTS contend the new ‘headland’ will serve to obscure the planned expanded industrial area alongside the yacht basin and fisherman’s port – though it does seem somewhat perverse that ‘brownie points’ for hiding the site come from erecting an even greater obstruction, particularly when it was charged to ‘minimise the impact of the EfW plant in the first place.

Unexpected ‘harmless’ iridescent discharges from the neighbouring JEC installation apart, the ‘Save Our Shoreline’ campaign has wasted little time in warning about the possible environmental risks from the construction, including the effects rising sea levels, erosion and the fear pollution leaching into the RAMSAR site.

They’ve long objected to dumping material in the area, citing photographic evidence of building rubbish blown on the foreshore. For the residents along the St Clement’s coast line, well, they’ve already lost sight of Noirmont Point and Elizabeth Castle, while they’ve gained views of the back of the Connex bus garage and the rows of asbestos packed sea containers. So maybe they will welcome their monumental modesty panel.

And what about that great money-making opportunity from accepting rubbish from Guernsey? All that lovely excess incinerator capacity, which will be conveniently used up by a neighbouring Bailiwick that has itself run out of space, having ducked every scheme to deal with their own non-recyclable waste. Presumably, once it’s here, the same conventions will prevent the toxic ash from being repatriated to their own back yard. More for us, then.

But our local Mount Vesuvius could become a green and pleasant addition to the south coast – if you’re prepared to wait that long. And I’m pretty sure it will be the construction process which will offend more than the result. However, from the outside, once the retaining banks go up, you probably won’t see much activity.

An aerial view won’t look too pretty, but who goes slag-heap spotting these days? It will eventually be capped over – for the comfort of those who succeed us. But they still won’t be allowed to play on it, and by that time, TTS or its successors will be looking for somewhere else to fill. I know – how about Guernsey?