Select a region
Work has started this morning to encourage a load of rabbits to hop it from the Esplanade.
The hoarding on the site is going up on Monday so that Camerons can finally start work on the controversial new finance centre but there's a warren of local wildlife to move out the way first.
Loads of bunnies have set up home in the car park and it's the job of Jason Maindonald - Estates boss for the States of Jersey Development Company - to get them hopping along.
He said: “We will start removing the veg they like nibbling on and encourage them to move out West.
"They are 'above-ground' rabbits, so they stay under the hedges, they migrate very easily so we’re going to migrate them across to the other side and then in October or November we’ll capture them and re-home them at Westmount or somewhere like that.”
“We’ll be ensuring that no rabbit will be harmed when we start building. We’ll be moving all the shrubbery out of the way to entice them to move west and looking at how we can re-home them. I don’t want to see them continually growing in that car park or people will start running over them.
"I’ll have my pest controller with me to make sure that I’m doing it all correctly and checking that there aren’t any birds or other animals in the way."
After years of delays and missed deadlines, work on the Waterfront finance centre is finally due to start after UBS signed a lease for part of the first of a planned six buildings.
But as time has gone on, the bunnies who breed just 'like rabbits' seven times a year have been taking over that part of town. There are some on the roundabout, at Maritime House, in the garden at the Aquasplash, at Jardins de la Mer and even some down at the Harbour.
Mr Maindonald said: "The hoarding will be going up on Monday and I will still be on site until we are happy that all the rabbits are out of the way.
“I’ve been speaking to Tony Andrews, the director of Parks and Gardens. Westmount is very wild with its grass and wild flowers and rabbits grazing really helps the flowers to grow so he’s really interested in getting them back onto Westmount because that’s where he thinks they’ve come from.
"I am a lover of animals myself. I have two dogs and a tortoise so I know how people feel about local wildlife."
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.