PLANS for a new home for the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club – dubbed grand designs because they mirror some of the heroic projects in the TV series of the same name – open up a number of interesting questions in the Guernsey context.
The immediate reaction of many will be that the six shortlisted proposals are out of keeping with the island and should not go ahead.
Yet the businessman behind them, who spent £45m. building the Radisson Hotel in Jersey and wants to convert the former Randall’s Brewery into an hotel, has a point when he says the Environment Department is there to promote good design for the island.
Good design, while the concept might be subjective, is an absolute and it is always a difficult discussion to have about the extent to which – if at all – location should be allowed to compromise it.
Equally, however, planners have an audience to bear in mind and Guernsey people have a very strong idea of what’s acceptable and what is not and a historic harbour-front setting is probably not the best setting for such a philosophical debate.
There is also a wider issue.
If such a prime, publicly owned location is seen as suitable for a grand design, possibly also incorporating the adjoining Boathouse restaurant, why is its proposed use being limited to a private club?
Guernsey needs to generate income and/or stimulate its visitor economy and the Careening Hard and neighbouring piers hold enormous potential for the right, imaginative scheme.
Rather like the States is developing a strategy for the eastern seaboard, any possibility of Town seafront development should be opened up to the widest consideration about, as the Policy Council put it, optimising the public benefits to be gained.
Limiting thinking to a building for a group about to be evicted might be kindly but it is not making the best use of taxpayers’ assets.
The right sort of grand design – and it could be cutting edge indeed – bringing in the right sort of benefits for Guernsey would be welcomed by islanders.
Restricting it to a handful of club members would simply look suspiciously like an abuse of scarce assets.
3 Article Comments
I think we are not thinking straight to allow someone to come in and desacrate our St Peter Port frontage,iam not being negative,another positon somewhere else,maybe the southern end of town would be better situated,where the old brewery is.I was amazed last week when i witnessed the St Helier developments while enroute to St Malo,in my eyes they have absolutely ruined St Helier sea front for a few rich people lucky enough to be able to afford such properties,but to the detriment of others, we must not let this sort of development happen on our water front,it will be the beginning of the end.I am proud to say i am a Guernsey man ,born and bred,and I stand up and say leave our piers alone,this view is the first thing a visitor see’s when they arrive by boat and it is a beautiful sight to see,please build your club house by all means but not on this pier.
once again there is a scheme afoot to take away from the Guernseyman his/her history and heritage and to give to the incoming money of big business as they are the ones who will benefit most from this Scheme. As a private club It will be another piece of Guernsey Off limits the the honest Guernseyman and forever change our lovely harbour
Firstly I declare my interest as a member of both Guernsey yacht clubs.
I understood that it was States policy to maximise its under utilised property assets.The current showers & toilets on the Crown pier leave something to be desired.
If this situation existed in France, the local authorities would themselves pay for such a development, with a nominal rent being paid by
the yacht club.It being considered that the encouragement of the tourist trade is an essential. The Town Marina being the cheapest hotel in Guernsey.
The RCIYC welcome all yachtsmen to their club and has a long history in doing so.
Before your contributors enquire, I am a “come-over”, having only lived in Guernsey for 49 years.