Donkey statue could go back on show at Le Friquet

Friday 02 November 2018

A statue of a Guernsey Donkey may return to the front of Le Friquet Garden Centre, as its owners have applied for planning permission to temporarily display it over Christmas.

The famous - or infamous - £100,000 statue, first appeared outside the garden centre in 2017, after the people behind it, Geoff and Jennie Dorey, unveiled it to the public.

They had been planning for 19 years to get a statue of its kind mounted on a plinth at the entrance to the harbour on one of the piers in St Peter Port.

When the final product was unveiled, however, that idea was met with a chilly reception from the States of Guernsey and the harbour authorities. Following that, the couple had it displayed outside of the garden centre, which they own, on a temporary basis. That also came under fire, this time by the Planning Department, so they were forced to remove it.

Since then, the statue has been held in storage, but now the Doreys want to put it back on display at their garden centre, to free up room for storing stock for their business, while they once again lobby to find it a permanent home. 

"This all started a long time ago when we spoke to planning, and we had to get permission from STSB to put it where we wanted, at the harbour, so when the time came, we put it at the Friquet on a temporary basis," Mr Dorey, the founder of the Blue Diamond Group, said.

"We were eventually told to move it, because they said it was not temporary anymore. We have since been told that started because of a complaint, but we have had it in storage ever since. Now, we need that storage for Christmas, so we want to get it back out the front. It will go back where it was in front of the Friquet." 

This most recent planning application asks that the statue be displayed in the same place it was before, but for a set period of three months. Mr Dorey said he hoped in this time, they would be able to make progress on finding a more permanent home for it.

Pictured: the postcard the donkey statue is based on. 

The statue itself is based on an old Guernsey post card, which showed a Guernsey Donkey kicking a German soldier off the island following the Second World War. Because of this imagery, members of the public have questioned whether it would be suitable to display right at the entrance to Guernsey - at the harbour. 

But Mr Dorey said when they had it at the Friquet previously, it was "hugely popular" with visitors to the garden centre. 

"This has been a 19 year struggle for us so far, so we hope it will soon come to an end," he said.

The Doreys invested in the statue themselves, despite initially not getting support from the States, and said they hoped having it built would help them garner enough support to have it properly displayed. But since, it has remained either on display at the garden centre, or privately held in storage. 

Pictured: Geoff and Jennie Dorey at the unveiling of the statue. Picture from The Guernsey Donkey Facebook page.