Frequently-asked questions

The Commons are the largest area of land available for recreation and open to the public of Guernsey, comprising approximately 740 vergees in all and situate in the north of the Island. In addition to the many open spaces, there are numerous and large areas of gorse and other important habitats for many species of birds, animals and other wildlife. The Commons run from the Vale Church in the west to Beaucette in the east.

Presently, approximately 368 vergees is given over to the playing of golf.

The Commons also have a number of shooting ranges, two football pitches and a horse-racing course.

The Commons are managed by the Vale Commons Council (“the Council”). This body is empowered by an Ordinance (XI of 1932) and the Council comprises five members, two of whom must be Douzeniers. In particular, their duties include a responsibility “to regulate and supervise the use of the Commons not only as a place for the exercise of the rights of common pasture, but also as a place of public resort and recreation and this in such a way as to ensure as far as possible to every person the opportunity to enjoy the amenities of the place for those purposes and to prevent any use which would be harmful to the general interest.” Article 4 (translated). The members of the Council are elected by the Habitants of the Clos du Valle (“Habitants”). They are unpaid.

There are (depending upon how you count them) no less than 16 car parks, with a total area of 10,800 square metres.

Some of the coastal footpaths and other footpaths, exceeding 3,038 square metres.

There are metalled tracks across the Commons which amount to an area of 2,126 square metres.

There are unmade tracks of 2,721 square metres.

There are a number of important ancient historical sites which are in need of investment.

There are a number of German fortifications which need ongoing maintenance, and also with a view to them becoming places of future public interest.

Ownership of the Commons is diverse. In the 1800s, all of the Commons was in private ownership. Some remains in proven private ownership. Some has passed to the heirs of former owners, but those heirs may not be ascertained at present. Some areas are owned by the Council, purchased on behalf of the Habitants, and some small areas are owned by the States. The Crown owns the foreshore.

Habitants are people who reside in the Clos du Valle. This is the northernmost area of the parish, the boundary of which was created when the parish was divided by the waterway between Grande Havre and St Sampson. Habitants have rights of grazing, they may attend the meetings called by the Council and vote on any propositions put to the meeting by the Council, including the membership of the Council itself.

Funding for the care of the Commons has always been minimal. In 2000, the States resolved to set the annual grant to the Council for the maintenance of the Commons at a maximum of £30,000 per annum, increased by inflation. In fact, inflation was never applied and so the value of the grant diminished in real terms.

In 2016 the States increased the grant to £40,000 to be increased by RPIX. The Council also derives an income from the Golf Course, trenching, rental for bunkers and sites for kiosks. There are also some small annual donations. 

There is no doubt that a decline in the levels of usage by Habitants of their grazing rights has resulted in the need for more mechanized methods of managing the Commons. By opening grazing up to non-Habitants, it is anticipated that the level of use by owners of livestock will increase, sympathetically improving the land which forms a part of the Commons, and generating a modest source of income.  Control of grazing rests with the Council, which will remain mindful of the historic grazing rights of Habitants, which exist to this day.

As previously noted, one half of the Commons is presently set aside for the playing of golf. The other uses are limited grazing, walking, horse-riding, cycling, football, horse-racing, shooting, athletics, military exercises, kite-flying and other recreational pursuits by Islanders. Sometimes, the Council has to exercise its powers in balancing the competing wishes of various interest groups, for example, the interface between cyclists and walkers on the paths, or dog walkers and other pedestrians.

The use of the Commons is likely to remain substantially unchanged with one-half of the total area being given over to the playing of golf. However, pressure on the Commons is expected to increase over that period as a result of a likely overall increase in our population, a demographic change which means that there is a greater proportion of older people in the Island’s overall population, and the fact that people are generally more active in their later years.

Golf has been played on the Commons since at least 1890. In 1947, and following the German occupation, the States voted the sum of £10,000 for the reinstatement of the golf course, post-war. Of that, £5,000 was a loan to the Tourist Committee for it to develop the course on a municipal basis and take over the management and upkeep of the course from the Royal Guernsey Golf Club (Resolution of the States dated 20 February 1947). The preamble to the Resolution cited the golf course at St Andrew’s, Scotland, as an example of what was in contemplation in terms of the type of municipal course.

In the event, a municipal golf course has never existed, and the playing of golf has remained all but the exclusive preserve of the members of the Royal Guernsey Golf Club and L’Ancresse Golf Club. Those two clubs own Golf Course Management LBG, which undertakes the upkeep of the golf course on behalf of the members. Under a lease of seventy years’ duration, the two clubs paid an annual rent to the Council of £100 per annum, with a further £20 per annum being paid to the owners of ten parcels of land which form about forty per cent of the present golf course. 

With effect from 2017 the clubs pay £50,000 pa. increased by RPIX for the next twenty-five years. 

Prior to 2017 the agreement for the playing of golf on the Commons was for a period of seventy years. The Council was not willing to see its successors fettered in this way because it has a duty to preserve the Commons as a place of enjoyment for all Islanders. It is foreseeable that, in one generation, pressure on the Commons as a place of recreation could be such that retaining one-half of the total area for more or less exclusive use by the members of the two private golf clubs may no longer be viable.

For this reason, the Council was not willing to grant a further agreement for more than twenty-five years, to 2042. That is not to say that a golf course will not remain after that date but, for example, the course may be opened to more than the membership of the present clubs, or the course may be reduced in size to allow more space for enjoyment by a larger Island population. In declining requests for periods as high as fifty years, the Council believes that a term of twenty-five years is sufficient for the members of the two clubs to consider the possibility of alternative long-term future plans, if that is their wish.

At present, the golf course involves playing across public roads in two places, and this is clearly undesirable. This problem was addressed in 1987, when Mr Donald Steel, an international golf course architect, was engaged to advise on a realigned course, in order to avoid the playing of golf across public roads on the 8th, 9th and 13th holes. The Council is willing to relinquish the two present football pitches, to allow for a change to the golf course, on the understanding that the golf clubs meet the costs associated with the creation and maintenance of a relocated sports field. No agreement was reached on Mr Steel’s proposals, because there was no appetite on the part of the golf clubs for exchanging land from the present course. The Council asked Mr Steel to revisit and update his proposals, and he has confirmed that they could be implemented as part of any agreement after 2016, and that it would neither degrade the course nor be particularly expensive to achieve.

Historically, the Council and its predecessor committee have managed the Commons essentially in the terms of the present Ordinance (see 2, above). The members of the Council represent the interests of the Habitants but do so with regard to the rights of all Islanders to have equal enjoyment of the largest open space in an increasingly crowded Island. They do so with decades of experience, and are demonstrably able to balance the competing needs of Islanders on what had been a wholly inadequate level of funding. The Council certainly has its critics, and adequate future funding will allow it to address many of the issues which give rise to such criticism.

Were there plans for the Ordinance to be set aside, it would inevitably lead to a move to replace the functions of the Council with those provided by the States. At present, the States manages areas of public land which total an area equivalent to the Commons. The uses are varied but the inescapable fact is that the costs of so doing run into something in the order of over £1 million per annum. The accounts of the States are not easily understood, but it can be said with certainty that such a move would be costly, probably not as effective and would certainly involve considerable Civil Service time. The Council is of the view that neither the Habitants nor the general public would be supportive of such a move, particularly if any such proposal had its roots in protecting, enhancing or subsidizing the interests of the membership of the two private golf clubs.