Rodney Brouard, former president of the Guernsey Growers' Association, has threatened to shut down the island's main horticultural and agricultural retail store.

Brouard, managing director of the store, Stan Brouard Ltd, is locked in a row with the Island Development Committee over the building of further storage space for the business on a green belt area of land.

This company supplies growers' sundries, and exports flowers and 450,000 packs of plants to the UK annually. The closure of the horticultural side of the store would be devastating to both the local greenhouse and farming industry.

He has lost patience with a development plan that was supposed to last for five years, but has been heavily delayed - resulting in cramped conditions developing in the yards surrounding existing buildings. The problem would be relieved if the company was given permission to develop fields adjacent to its existing premises.

However, there is little hope of immediate settlement of the dispute as Agricultural and Countryside Committee president Peter Roffey said that the IDC should not be blackmailed into approving the plans. 'It certainly would be a loss to the industry, but I would understand that the IDC wants to be very cautious about being blackmailed into giving permission,' he said.

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