CONTROVERSIAL legislation governing the chopping down and pruning of trees will be subject to a further delay, the Environment Minister (pictured, right) has confirmed.
Deputy Jonathan Renouf said the forthcoming debate on the proposals, which saw him embroiled in a war-of-words with a fellow Member this week, would take place on 28 November – six weeks later than planned.
The minister apologised when the first version of his amendments to the planning law, which were published in March, were met with a storm of protest from landowners and tree surgeons.
Version two of the amendment to the law was published last month, only to attract further criticism.
In a letter to the JEP this week, Deputy Philip Bailhache said the new rules were “a gross intrusion into individual freedom”, but Deputy Renouf hit back at the former Bailiff, describing his criticism as “alarmist nonsense”.
Speaking to the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel, Deputy Renouf said he had received little feedback after publishing the revised proposals three weeks ago.
He said: “I perhaps very naively interpreted the silence [over recent weeks] as meaning that, basically, people were happy with them. But clearly there is still a lot of uncertainty around them, and dissatisfaction in some quarters, so it feels entirely appropriate to have a proper look at this again.
“They may have flown below the radar more because people were preoccupied with other things.”
If approved by the Assembly on 28 November, the new law would come into force seven days later, on Tuesday 5 December.
