Grapes of wrath

Vine­yards in Sark  sab­o­taged.

Sup­port wires – some up to 200 yards long – have been cut and repairs will take up to six months. The cost is esti­mat­ed at tens of thou­sands of pounds.

Vine­yards in Sark  sab­o­taged.

Sup­port wires – some up to 200 yards long – have been cut and repairs will take up to six months. The cost is esti­mat­ed at tens of thou­sands of pounds.

Kevin Delaney of Sark Estate Man­age­ment says staff who have been work­ing on the project are dis­traught.

In all 40,000 vines have been affect­ed out of the 100,000 plant­ed. The sup­port wires were sev­ered at both ends and in the mid­dle. Mr Delaney said it was a “night of dev­as­ta­tion”.

The act of sab­o­tage came ahead of a protest about the scale of vine­yard plan­ta­tions in the island. The Agri­cul­ture Com­mit­tee have called for a halt on the con­ver­sion of graz­ing land. They fear it will lead to the col­lapse of farm­ing and dam­age bio­di­ver­si­ty.

More than 80 islanders staged a protest near a field cur­rent­ly being ploughed for vine­yard devel­op­ment.

In a pub­lic state­ment the com­mit­tee say

“The scale of this new mono­cul­ture will have a dev­as­tat­ing effect on Sark’s unique and diverse wildlife. Many species which rely on Sark’s healthy fields – from earth­worms, insects, but­ter­flies, moths, bats, birds, up to Pere­grine Fal­cons which nest around our cliffs, will suf­fer as the tra­di­tion­al envi­ron­ment is impov­er­ished.

“We call on the Sark Estate Man­age­ment to halt present work and recon­sid­er the agri­cul­tur­al plans and pri­or­i­ties for their land in Sark.”

The agri­cul­ture com­mit­tee say they have wor­ries about the use of Bor­deaux Mix­ture, which con­tains cop­per sul­phate, becom­ing air­borne and spread­ing out­side the vine­yards.