Historic moment as flats plan is approved
Wednesday 30th March 2011, 11:30AM BST.
Angus Perfitt, whose Cornet Street house backs onto the development, gathered hundreds of names on a petition, but the Environment board ruled it was too late to be considered. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 1116128)
CONCERNED neighbours watched politicians back the Coupee Lane development in Guernsey’s first open planning meeting yesterday.
More than 40 islanders witnessed the board’s decision-making process that resulted in all four deputies approving plans to build a four-storey block of flats with a parking facility below.
Before the presentation began, Deputy Jack Honeybill declared he had been previously connected with the site many years ago and disqualified himself from the decision-making process. His move received a clap from one member of the audience.
Planning officer Julian Pentland opened with a presentation outlining the plans and pointing out that in 2009, permission had been granted for the development of flats but with some offices below and an archive store – that was still valid.
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So are these open planning meetings designed purely to enable concerned parties to witness the decision in a detached way, merely sitting in on the meeting so that the civil servants and planners can sit back and say “oh yes, we have open planning meetings” or do the concerned parties actually have a chance to question the planners and hear their justifications, if there are any, for passing yet another eyesore development.
It seems in this case, from the above report at least, that this first meeting was a waste of time because permission given in 2009 was still valid and the petition presented was too late; If it is too late to present a petition at the “open planning meeting” when should a petition be raised and handed in, is this not the point of “open planning meetings” ?
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Ridiculous move by the Environment Department, they’re all quite happy to allow huge flats being built which will obviously be too expensive for the local Guernsey person.
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DA666
Environment have already taken your concerns on board
They have leapt into action pulling out all the stops to ensure that people will be permitted to speak ‘in about a year’!
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This was a revised plan as the previous application (FULL/2009/3606) was rejected by the Environment Department because:-
“The site is located within a designated Conservation Area in the Urban Area Plan. Policies DBE1 and DBE7 of the Plan are particularly relevant to this proposal.
By virtue of the overall scale, mass and façade design of the building, the proposals will not conserve or enhance the Conservation Area, as required by Policy DBE7, and would not respect the scale and massing of existing buildings in the area as well as the topography of the area and the site.
The proposal is therefore contrary to Policies DBE1 and DBE7 of the adopted
Urban Area Plan.”
I looked at the new plans and there appeared to be no fundamental difference between those and the previous one, so how did it suddenly become ‘within’ the policies of DBE1 and DBE7.
Can the Enviroment move the goal posts as and when it wants to?
There is no point having an open meeting if people can not express their objections at that meeting or hand in a petition and have that considered at the time.
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Teresa
I have not followed this case but your points
about there being no fundamental difference between the policies and whether Enviroment move the goal posts as and when it wants to is I am afraid what is happening. They are in a position where they can do this even though they continually deny this.
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Teresa, the architects probably just added a bit more glass to their design. That’s usually all it takes to get the planning officers excited, after which they’ll pass anything!
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I like the bit that says Jack honey bills move received a clap from one member of the audience. That audience member probably was lost and thought they were on deal or no deal. At the end of the day. The Environment Department twists the law to suit themselves, ignore petitions, the public and do what they want. They do nothing to help the Environment or the Island. They destroy small business by forcing them to close or getting their small signs removed. They Allow monstrosities to be built tell people to remove fences and walls which in some cases a danger and are on an all out assault on small sheds note I said small sheds anything over several thousand square meters will be fine by them. It’s about time we did something about them.
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@Dot Comma
Now that you mention it, there was something about obscured glass in the new plans, that must have done it! That would be funny if it wasn’t true
I am brushing up on my ‘Clamour’ for when the diggers move in!
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Firestorm;
I agree with each and every word you have written, it’s a disgrace to Guernsey people that a bunch of no good committees can rule as they like.
They’ll tell you it is for the benefit of the Island that’s bull… and they know it
It’s time that bunch was put out to grazing, in a field with no shed for shelter.
They call themselves Environment Department, it seems it’s more like Idiots-get-together.
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@ Islander,
Loved ur comment….. the image of that is gonna keep a smile on my face all day!
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People may wish to question just who was involved in the developing company that got the ’2009′ (they were passed previous to this) plans approved and why a certain minister felt obliged to remove themselves from this decision making process. This whole process requires some sort of independent inquiry.
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I like the picture of Angus, but he’s not wearing a hi-vis jacket so he can’t be that upset about the development.
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Bryn
Good luck with an enquiry, although it would ultimately be pointless as the Code of (Mis)Conduct panel would never find anything wrong with the behaviour of the person to whom you refer.
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