Grandes Rocques Bar and Bistro licensee Bob McKenzie has lost his planning appeal to keep these signs at the former Wayside Tavern. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 1094116)

THE former Wayside Tavern has lost its attempt to overturn an Environment Department decision to refuse planning permission for two signs on the front of the building.

A three-person appeal panel agreed with the department’s view that two signs erected either side of a main ‘Grandes Rocques Bar and Bistro’ sign were too big.

But the panel admitted it had sympathy for licensee Bob McKenzie’s argument that many other signs on commercial buildings in the area of Grandes Rocques and Cobo Village did not accord with Environment’s guidance.

‘The tribunal considers it self-evident that if planning controls are to have public understanding and support, such controls must be seen to be applied fairly and consistently and enforcement action taken where development is unauthorised,’ the panel said in its notice of appeal decision document.

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