Alderney Marina plans dropped

Laura Hodgetts

A multi-million proposal to redevelop the harbour area and create an Alderney marina has been dropped.

Alderney Developments Ltd, the company behind the scheme at Maggies Bay, has written to the States of Alderney withdrawing it, giving the reason as uncertainty over the future of the breakwater.

Plans for a marina for Alderney have been on and off for decades.

In January 2014, PBO reported that the Braye Harbour Developments group, headed up by marina building veteran Robin Walters of Walcon Marine, was looking at building a marina at Toulouse Rock under Fort Albert – the eastern end of Braye Bay.

If successful, the scheme would have created ‘the only marina in the Channel Islands with 24-hour tidal access.’

Braye Harbour Developments’ exclusivity agreement with the States ended in September 2014 in favour of ADL’s rival plan.

ADL had been due to make a public presentation of their plans before the end of 2015.

The Alderney Press reports that the future of the breakwater remains in doubt as Guernsey States – responsible for its maintenance – has yet to decide whether to continue its current maintenance programme or to decide upon a more radical approach which could see the breakwater shortened and a new limb built out to ensure that a sheltered harbour remains.

Guernsey States says that the breakwater, which is built on a rubble mound, has a finite life as it is.