MORE than £7,000 has been spent by the government on a failed attempt to install safety railings on a stretch of sea wall near La Haule slip, it has emerged.
A freedom-of-information request found that the Infrastructure Department spent £5,280 on a planning application that was rejected in March, and £1,990 on an earlier 2020 bid to build a wall at the site.
The latest decision is now being reviewed by the Planning Committee, which is made up of a panel of politicians.
The application was strongly criticised by Islanders, who described it as “whimsical”, a “waste of time”, and “symptomatic of a department with money to waste”.
One submission said: “Stop looking for problems that aren’t there and utilise your time fixing more pressing [ones].”
In its design statement, the department said the plans were prompted by claims that a member of the public had a “near fatal accident” at the site when they fell from the wall onto the beach.
Planning rejected the latest bid because it would restrict views of St Aubin, and because the German anti-tank wall is a listed historical monument.
