Community-funded growing tunnel destroyed in storm

A community group has lost thousands of pounds worth of equipment following a storm hitting Jersey.

High winds of up to 95 mph (154km/h) were recorded as Storm Goretti hit the island on Thursday night, cutting more than 300 people off from electricity and a reported 86 fallen trees and debris blocking roads and pathways.

The winds destroyed a £12,000 sheltered tunnel used by Grow Jersey, which was opened in July to support the community in learning how to grow organic foods.

The environmental group said it would have to raise money again for a new tunnel, which was used up to six days a week.

Co-founder Sheena Brockie said it was "quite devastating" arriving on site to find the polytunnel "completely tumbled".

She said: "I guess a wind tunnel, in that wind, it's always gonna be a risk.

"We managed to secure the rest of site and everything else apart from our bees house got slightly toppled, everything else is secure."

Brockie said the not for profit groupy would have to consider how common these storms might become when buying a new one.

She said: "We've got the best quality polytunnel we could, maybe we need to think about windbreaks, but this is climate emergency.

"We're gonna get these kind of weathers over and over again so we do need to go back and rethink how we move forward."

Brockie said the tunnel was an important area for the community and said "any help that anyone can give us we'd be grateful for".

She said: "We've got community groups, school groups, businesses are coming off for volunteering - we're using that extensively and the great thing about having the polytunnel was it gets people out the weather in these winter months.

"We'd be absolutely desperate for help to be honest, we need to rebuild this, we need to replace the things that have been lost, we need to grow back stronger so that might be more expensive."

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