This Is Guernsey

By Nick Mann

A DISPUTE over a 50ft strip of land at L’Ancresse has flared up again.

Chiropractor Brian Bolderston (pictured) was at work yesterday morning when he saw a contractor on behalf of the L’Ancresse Commons Council putting granite pillars in the ground outside. He has been fighting the council over its jurisdiction over the land but had received no notice of the work.

When he bought the property in 1999 it had open access from the front but since 2004 grass has been reinstated and pillars laid around it by the council so that he has a 12ft vehicle access on one side and pedestrian access on the other.

He managed to use the pedestrian access and some of a neighbour’s property to allow small cars to go through, creating an in-and-out system for the practise, which can have up to four visitors an hour. The work was meant to end that but had been done at the wrong end.

Council chairman George Domaille came to see it as Mr Bolderston was being interviewed by the Guernsey Press and said the property should have the same access as its neighbours – 12ft for vehicles and three for pedestrians.A DISPUTE over a 50ft strip of land at L’Ancresse has flared up again.

Chiropractor Brian Bolderston (pictured) was at work yesterday morning when he saw a contractor on behalf of the L’Ancresse Commons Council putting granite pillars in the ground outside. He has been fighting the council over its jurisdiction over the land but had received no notice of the work.

When he bought the property in 1999 it had open access from the front but since 2004 grass has been reinstated and pillars laid around it by the council so that he has a 12ft vehicle access on one side and pedestrian access on the other.

He managed to use the pedestrian access and some of a neighbour’s property to allow small cars to go through, creating an in-and-out system for the practise, which can have up to four visitors an hour.

The work was meant to end that but had been done at the wrong end.

Council chairman George Domaille came to see it as Mr Bolderston was being interviewed by the Guernsey Press and said the property should have the same access as its neighbours – 12ft for vehicles and three for pedestrians.

Even the pedestrian access width is disputed by the chiropractor, who said it should be four feet.

‘I moved one of the pillars so small cars could get out partially using next door’s access. The council appears to have taken umbrage to that. Someone turned up this morning with a digger when I was doing the paper work and started digging holes at the other end.’

He immediately contacted  Environment to complain that development was taking place without permission.

But late yesterday afternoon a department spokesman confirmed that in this case it did not amount to development.

Mr Bolderston was concerned there were two douzeniers on the Commons Council.

‘Under the 1933 ordinance the Commons Council has carte blanche: it can do practically anything it likes, to whoever it likes, whenever it likes.’

He said the dispute was complicated further because there was no land registry in Guernsey.

‘It’s difficult to find documentary evidence of what comes under the responsibility of the Commons Council and what’s under the States.’

He said when he brought the property, the deed plan showed the strip was part of the road network, with the common labelled on the other side of the road.

Since the property was built in 1966, until he bought it, there had been access over the strip, claimed Mr Bolderston.

He would not have bought it if he had known there was going to be an access issue.

In the past, the council has suggested he created access in a wall he owns along the side of the practice, bordering a clos.

But he was concerned about the dangers this posed in such a small road. Mr Bolderston has considered taking legal action, but said the cost was prohibitive.

‘It puts me between a rock and a hard place.’

Attempts to contact Mr Domaille for further comment were not successful.

Article posted on 13th June, 2008 - 2.29pm