Cross Vein
I have campaigned alongside environmental experts to highlight concerns about the Cross Vein proposals. Those concerns have never been simply about opposing a solution to Peel’s contaminated silt — they are about making sure the right solution is found, and that our uplands are properly understood and protected.
The decision by the Council of Ministers to overturn the Planning Committee and approve the scheme, dated 6 August — just days before the present House of Keys was dissolved — raises important questions about how we make decisions of this significance.
What concerns me most is that the history of this land can so easily become a footnote in a modern planning process.
The hills have been worked, grazed and used by generations of Manx people. The cultural and historical understanding of that land matters.
Too often, decisions are reduced to technical reports and administrative processes, while the knowledge and history of the people connected to the land are treated as secondary.
Land held in trust for the people of the island must never become land where the people are an afterthought.
We need a Government that listens, understands our history and respects our communities.
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