A FORMER Progressive Labour Party Trustee charged with destroying longtail nests has still not repaired the damage — more than a year after being ordered to do so.

And one irate neighbour believes Henry Talbot is not being prosecuted because of his Government connections.The dispute kicked off in 2004 when Mr. Talbot bulldozed a Somerset beauty spot in order to build a jetty and boathouse. The demolition work, on Gilbert's Bay, off East Shore Road, flouted planning and environmental protection laws and a subsequent appeal was rejected. Although Mr. Talbot had obtained planning permission to build the boathouse, he did not have permission to wipe out rock formations.

After a lengthy inquiry, Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield gave Mr. Talbot a deadline of October 18, 2005 to repair the damage he caused.

If the reparation work, including the creation of artificial longtail nests to replace those he destroyed, had not been carried out by that date, enforcement action was threatened. The location has been a popular nesting site for longtails for centuries and environmentalists claimed up to six active nests had been destroyed by Mr. Talbot.

In addition, a large proportion of the land he cleared to widen his access to the beach was classed as woodland reserve, while neighbours were angered further by the placement of boulders — the debris from the bulldozing of the rock formations — at the bottom of the trail giving access to the beach for several families in the neighbourhood. Police were called in and they ordered Mr. Talbot to remove the boulders and planning inspectors slapped a stop order on the works.

But as of yesterday no further action has been taken, despite initial claims by the authorities that Mr. Talbot could be prosecuted after showing complete disregard for the regulations.

And neighbour Peter Bromby said he believed the lack of action was because Mr. Talbot has friends in high places within Government.

"Absolutely nothing has changed, even though he has appealed to everyone and everyone is in agreement with the original findings — that what he did was illegal," Mr. Bromby said.

"I have got nothing to say to him. — I'm just trying to deal with the authorities but it seems that if you play it by the rules nothing gets done — particularly in this case where you have a friend of the Government who is allowed to away with murder.

"The last time we had any correspondence from the authorities was when we were informed that he had been given a deadline to correct all the illegal stuff he had done — that was back in October 2005.

"Do I expect anything to be done? Well I'm not holding my breath."

Government Conservation officer Jeremy Madeiros also said it was essential that the cliff face be repaired as soon as possible.

He noted that the location had been the home for several pairs of breeding longtails over the years — and that nest sites were in short supply.

"The problem with these nest sites is that, once longtails and other tropical birds start using them, they remain faithful to that site. Once the nests have been destroyed, it's very difficult to get them back.

"Some of the cliff face which offers protection from predators such as crows, was pulled away so even if some of the nests were not destroyed, they have still been affected by the damage.

"It's not just humans that have a housing problem — animals do too and it's a known fact that we've lost hundreds of nests in recent years due to hurricane activity. Longtails don't have the ability to dig their own nests and we have had a programme where we install artificial nests and that has been very successful and that should be done here. Otherwise we're destroying the whole breeding potential of that site. We've lost half of our breeding longtails in the last 50 or 60 years and we must look at protecting their nests. We don't want them to become as rare as the cahow.

The Mid-Ocean News firstcontacted the Ministry of the Environment more than a week ago to ask why the repair order on Mr. Talbot had not been enforced. As of press time last night the Ministry had no comment to make.

Beauty spot still not repaired one year after enforcement order