Planning laws must be enforced, says Environment
Saturday 27th November 2010, 2:29PM GMT.
LAWS may seem inflexible, but they must be kept to and enforced – that is the message from the Environment Department over the Griffin’s Grotto application.
The St Saviour’s gift shop fell foul of planning rules after the Waterman family set up shop in the former Le Tricoteur jumper business 18 months ago, only to find the building was registered for industrial use.
Planners rejected a retrospective planning application and, following a meeting last week, the Watermans have now accused them of not negotiating.
But an Environment Department spokesman said islanders must work within the policies.
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The dictatorship of law here is an inconsistent oscillation between,
arbitrary rule and legal facade of course you can not negotiate with a department that see in black and white They only try to interpret what is written in the policies. Hence there is a lack of what is right and wrong and a complete absence of common sense. They then can hide behind the policy and accept no responsibility to the damage and hurt it may cause.
It is obvious the policies are wrong or broken all you have to do is look at the ridiculous planning decisions recently.
If you are told that these policies are not wrong and work fine then this is a clear admission that there are injustices going on. Take for example the monstrous buildings that have gone up fields that get turned into units or a load of houses and some of the most weird living accommodation that seem to pop up from time to time. Then Joe Blogs down the road puts up a garden shed and the next minute the shed should not be there or it’s breaching section RE23432 of policy DAE3868667 and is not authorized for gardening use so it will need to removed.
You may say that’s silly but you all know what I am talking about.
All cases should de assessed individually empty or derelict sites should be allowed to be used and walls and fences built or replaced if they do not cause disruption or harm to people or the environment not simply looked at as due they conform to policy or maybe how many lawyers can they afford.
Its time people to make a stand like Griffins Grotto is doing and stand up for what’s right
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I think the word “dictatorship” is a bit strong , you might consider using the word in regards to North Korea, for example, where mobile phones are banned as is the use of the internet, both holding a prison sentance and possible execution
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Sorry Firestorm but I disagree.
We live on a 25 square mile rock which is over-populated and under constant building and development pressure.
This has the knock on effect that property owners will want to convert properties into whatever type of building is most profitable – e.g. converting hotels into flats, or industrial units into shops or whatever.
It is important that these things are tightly controlled or we would end up with an imbalance in the housing / retail / industrial mix and that would be bad for the people of Guernsey.
OK this is harsh on the Waterman family, but I would rather see the Environment Department being heavy handed than watch Guernsey’s environment and economy ruined by uncontrolled development.
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CD nobody is developing anything what they are using has always been a shop before them a gift shop before that a jumper shop and before that a bakers shop. The 2 large industrial units there remain empty along with another 3 at Rocquaine. The E.D are however letting a large well known garden supplier expand onto fields along with some new industrial units onto yet another field it seems to me the E.D is being heavy handed and has double standards. I totally agree that what’s left of greenland needs to be protected but with the present E.D its getting swallowed up faster than ever. The big players get what they want but a small family who have not changed anything down at Perelle get the full brunt of the law thrown at them.
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CD
“OK this is harsh on the Waterman family, but I would rather see the Environment Department being heavy handed than watch Guernsey’s environment and economy ruined by uncontrolled development”.
That maybe true but its a shame it dosent apply to the finance industry, and the who you know not what you know.
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