JERSEY’S 109-year-old branchage law should be amended to ensure that it has more “teeth” to protect animals and plants, an environmental group says.
Amendments to the Loi sur la Voirie, which was introduced to legislate for the practice of branchage in 1914, have been put forward by Jersey in Transition in an open email to States Members.
The group says that while it considers the law to have served the Island well, it should be updated to incorporate guidelines that have been issued more recently in a bid to protect wildlife and encourage biodiversity.
A key part of the proposed amendment is to insert a legal minimum length of 10cm for vegetation bordering roads after branchage work has been carried out.
The group would also want vegetation on top of banques and verges to be left uncut if it did not overhang a road. In the event that such vegetation did overhang, the same 10cm limit would apply.
Under the proposals, a measuring stick with a 10cm coloured section at one end would be used to measure the residual height of vegetation.
Branchage should also be carried out, Jersey in Transition believes, in accordance with the 2021 Wildlife Law, which covers the conservation and protection of wild animals, including birds, and plants, as well as promoting biodiversity.
Group chair Nigel Jones said the guidelines were “excellent”, but that more needed to be done.
He said: “The branchage guidelines contain vital and important advice, and they have been widely – but not universally – adopted. “By making a couple of small changes to the 1914 law, the most important advice within the guidelines can be ‘given teeth’.” Mr Jones added that it was the group’s view that while the 1914 law protected road users from the encroachment of the wild banques, it did not protect the wild banques from the encroachment of road users.
“In the 21st century, in a climate and biodiversity crisis, our proposals bring a little balance into the law, and bring it more up to date for our times,” he said.
