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They Paved Paradise
"Isn't it time us TAX PAYING people had a say in all of this and how about the controlling powers that be in charge of st ouens and st brelades also took heed from what the real people of this island. Open up the islands beauty spots for all to enjoy and get yer heads outa the dark ages jersey" (Facebook)
My correspondent Adam Gardiner commented on the irony of this post about the mobile homes which congregate in St Ouen’s Bay:
‘Open up the islands beauty spots for all to enjoy’. In the context of allowing mobile homes to congregating at Le Port in St. Ouen’s Bay we produce exact the opposite...an eyesore.
In the words of folk songstress Joni Mitchell:
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
And he’s quite right, although this is nothing new. As Julie Buckley, writing in the Independent notes, this is a well-known phenomenon:
It’s called the Butler Model (named after Professor Richard W Butler): a tourist destination is “discovered”, grows exponentially and reaches peak success. For most places, though, it’s all downhill from there – beaches are overcrowded, queues are long and badly behaved tourists ruin the atmosphere that their predecessors came for.
That goes right back to the 1980s when Richard Butler published his seminal paper.
Butler, R.W. (1980). The concept of a tourist area cycle of evolution: implications for management of resources. Canadian Geographer, 24, pp. 5-12.
In this he started a discussion about tourism carrying capacity and sustainability. He saw that tourism attractions are fragile and need to be carefully managed so that they are not allowed to exceed their capacity limits.
As he wrote:
“"Visitors will come to an area in small numbers initially, restricted by lack of access, facilities, and local knowledge. As facilities are provided and awareness grows, visitor numbers will increase. With marketing, information dissemination, and further facility provision, the area’s popularity will grow rapidly.”
He also noted that there were limits – “identified in terms of environmental factors (e.g. land scarcity, water quality, air quality), of physical plant (e.g. transportation, accommodation, other services), or of social factors (e.g. crowding, resentment by the local population)”
It is the crowding aspect and a realisation that it must be dealt with which is now taxing the Constable of St Peter. In this case, he observes that an area may become a “tourism slum”.
But it should be noted, as the JEP report outlines, that he is hoping a “Softly Softly” approach will work best:
The Constable of St Peter, Richard Vibert, says while he does not want to entirely ban people from the area on the coastal strip, the parish wants to find a solution that allows Islanders to enjoy the bay and also protects the environment.
‘There can be 60 vehicles in the area at the weekend and that is creating a safety problem, as it is becoming too crowded,’ he said. ‘The majority of people are acting responsibly but there is a minority who are giving us issues. There are families with mobile homes who go down there to sleep over and they are being disturbed by people drinking and playing loud music in the night.
Because so many people are now using the area, he added, they were spreading into neighbouring duneland which was not only a Site of Special Interest but also in the Coastal National Park. Campfires were being lit, which could endanger rare plants and wildlife, while the dunes were also being used as a toilet by some people.
So much for paradise...
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
References
https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2018/08/04/st-ouens-bay-camp-is-too-big-says-constable/
"Isn't it time us TAX PAYING people had a say in all of this and how about the controlling powers that be in charge of st ouens and st brelades also took heed from what the real people of this island. Open up the islands beauty spots for all to enjoy and get yer heads outa the dark ages jersey" (Facebook)
My correspondent Adam Gardiner commented on the irony of this post about the mobile homes which congregate in St Ouen’s Bay:
‘Open up the islands beauty spots for all to enjoy’. In the context of allowing mobile homes to congregating at Le Port in St. Ouen’s Bay we produce exact the opposite...an eyesore.
In the words of folk songstress Joni Mitchell:
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
And he’s quite right, although this is nothing new. As Julie Buckley, writing in the Independent notes, this is a well-known phenomenon:
It’s called the Butler Model (named after Professor Richard W Butler): a tourist destination is “discovered”, grows exponentially and reaches peak success. For most places, though, it’s all downhill from there – beaches are overcrowded, queues are long and badly behaved tourists ruin the atmosphere that their predecessors came for.
That goes right back to the 1980s when Richard Butler published his seminal paper.
Butler, R.W. (1980). The concept of a tourist area cycle of evolution: implications for management of resources. Canadian Geographer, 24, pp. 5-12.
In this he started a discussion about tourism carrying capacity and sustainability. He saw that tourism attractions are fragile and need to be carefully managed so that they are not allowed to exceed their capacity limits.
As he wrote:
“"Visitors will come to an area in small numbers initially, restricted by lack of access, facilities, and local knowledge. As facilities are provided and awareness grows, visitor numbers will increase. With marketing, information dissemination, and further facility provision, the area’s popularity will grow rapidly.”
He also noted that there were limits – “identified in terms of environmental factors (e.g. land scarcity, water quality, air quality), of physical plant (e.g. transportation, accommodation, other services), or of social factors (e.g. crowding, resentment by the local population)”
It is the crowding aspect and a realisation that it must be dealt with which is now taxing the Constable of St Peter. In this case, he observes that an area may become a “tourism slum”.
But it should be noted, as the JEP report outlines, that he is hoping a “Softly Softly” approach will work best:
The Constable of St Peter, Richard Vibert, says while he does not want to entirely ban people from the area on the coastal strip, the parish wants to find a solution that allows Islanders to enjoy the bay and also protects the environment.
‘There can be 60 vehicles in the area at the weekend and that is creating a safety problem, as it is becoming too crowded,’ he said. ‘The majority of people are acting responsibly but there is a minority who are giving us issues. There are families with mobile homes who go down there to sleep over and they are being disturbed by people drinking and playing loud music in the night.
Because so many people are now using the area, he added, they were spreading into neighbouring duneland which was not only a Site of Special Interest but also in the Coastal National Park. Campfires were being lit, which could endanger rare plants and wildlife, while the dunes were also being used as a toilet by some people.
So much for paradise...
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
References
https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2018/08/04/st-ouens-bay-camp-is-too-big-says-constable/
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