Growers want planning laws for big sites eased
Saturday 13th August 2011, 2:30PM BST.
THE States is coming under increasing pressure to allow development on some horticulture sites after a planning tribunal and the Guernsey Growers’ Association said the policies were out of date.
Following a review of a list of 12 important growing locations, the GGA has now told Commerce and Employment that stringent controls, which prevent development or change of use, should be relaxed for key areas.
‘We do not want to stifle applications for change of use on the dozen sites involved, although owners would still have to go through the lawful application for any change of use,’ said president Alan Dorey (pictured).
A list of large properties considered as important to the future of the island’s horticultural industry was drawn up more than 10 years ago by the then Committee for Horticulture, the Island Development Committee and the GGA.
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No! Not one further inch of Guernsey’s Valuable horticultural sites must be turned over to ‘development’. The time is coming when the world will be short of food and every acre of growing land will be needed to enable humans to continue living.
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Agreed, growing land is going to be worth it’s weight in gold in the coming future.
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Should add it wont be about a horticultral industry, but a matter of living with enough food or starvation. Money or food…
The island needs to plan ahead with such limited resources you can’t keep changing land from being potentially productive to steel or other such none use.
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Surprise surprise.
We own land, we should be able to develop it.
I have a field, can I build 30 houses please.
The reason owners can’t rent out greenhouse sites is because they ask stupid rents, they feel as they have been sitting on the sites for decades waiting for building permission, the sites are valuable.
I recently saw a 1 acre greenhouse site at a local estate agent up for £850 000.
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@ Expat80 (13/08/2011 17:00) Exactly – especially on an island like Guernsey. All down to money/greed again.
It’s a shame that we don’t have any states members with big enough b*lls and concern for the island to stick their necks out…
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Then there is the other side of the coin,where a Guernsey couple have owned a small plot of land on which once stood less than 200 ft of glass. Allthough it stands next to a very large housing development,surrounded by dwellings on three sides, they have been denied the right to build a home on it for more than 30 years.
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Good idea to save the green fields and glasshouse sites,but to do so will mean that we will need to start building upwards
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I’m not sure what sort of apocalyptic future Expat sees but even if half the island was turned over and vegtables planted we could never produce on a large enough scale and at a cheap enough cost to make it viable.
Plue, where would all the labour live?
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Whilst I want to see Guernsey as green as possible, there is a need for residential housing and there are a lot of derelict vineries. Why couldn’t change of use be granted in certain circumstances but at a cost which would reflect some of the uplift in value? Surely a win-win situation if it brings in £ millions to the States, particularly if they use it sensibly for a change.
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Yes I agree with the first comment that it is becoming increasingly evident that more food will have to be grown locally in the future but also from a planning perspective it would seem incredible to set a precedent for future development on horticultural land when you consider that housing density outside of the town areas is very high in Guernsey. If more housing is considered sustainable it should be concentrated in brown field land in the town areas. A long term sustainable development policy should not be influenced or pressured by any group that would benefit financially.
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@RAY. Incorrect Ray. Building ‘upwards’ would destroy the island once and for all! Fact is, there is no need to build at all. Simply legislate a population cap for the island, a cap which I suggest is close to already having been reached.
A population cap is the only only sane way to progress.
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@j. No offense ‘j’, but if, with the state that our world is already in, you cannot envisage the apocalyptic future that awaits us all if we continue along our present-day course, then either you are deliberately ignoring world conditions, or you are wearing very dark glassess…….
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@Expat. No offence taken. I can envisage lots of apocalyptic visions of the future but:-
a) I feel it is highly unlikely any of them will come to be
b) That technology will develop in such a way to to resolve any humanity threatening issues before they cause irreversible damage.
If you travelled back to the early 1700 (prior to the agricultural and industrial revolutions) and told them what the population of the earth is now they would not believe you and would have no idea how we can feed that many people. If you then told them that not only were a large proportion of these people not starving and were living exceedingly comfortable lives they would burn you at the stake for witch craft.
c) I don’t believe that guernsey could ever go back to supporting itself
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So from a few of the comments, we should just abandon all hope of having local growing and should just plant “needed” houses everywhere? Do you guys work for the environment department or something? Why not just ban any building on greenfield sites and horticultural/agricultural land full stop. Encourage people to (shock horror) grow stuff themselves. Allotments are in high demand – that’s a good use of this land, but building?
@ Chaz – a very wise point. However, given how interconnected our local politics seems to be with “special interest groups with money” how likely is that!
@ Beanjar, why on earth do we need more housing? Perhaps a better use of what’s available would be a better solution don’t you think? This island can only support a limited population so it’s the height of folly to try to cram more people in!
@j – so how do you plan on keeping food prices affordable for us mere rabble when fuel prices (etc) continue to rise? Do you have any idea how connected modern agriculture is linked to the petrochemical industry and how much food prices are likely to rise? If so, you wouldn’t be so blase over the need to keep local land for growing…
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As regards food,
Why oh why is there so much waste,
many have eyes bigger than their bellies (as my old Ma used to say)
Yet they still have huge piled plates of food, and quite a lot goes to waste,
I won’t go into details, but occupation taught people many things, food being just one.
As for housing, greed of making money is one aspect of all this, highest price etc for houses or plots.
Once the Finance leave ( and they will) then there will be as many house vacant as there are Greenhouses.
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Cynic – Do you have any idea about the economies of large scale agricultural production in locations with favourable weather conditions and cheap labour/land versus small scale production in locations with unpredictable weather, high labour costs and expensive land.
Even with rising fuel costs (our reliance on fossil fuels will be one of the first things to be resolved when the need gets great enough) the cost of growing in Guernsey will never be lower than importing from suitable countries.
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cynic
Whilst I have some sympathy for your ban on building on horticultural sites , if that ban had been in place the Post office would not have been built,nor would the prison or St Sampsons High
The new data park at Route Militaire which will employ tens of people would not be under way and I am sure that dozens of Clos around the island would not exist
On the subject of food there was a very encouraging article in Tuesday’s Mail about scientists having discovered a method of preserving food for years without affecting its quality which will prevent the thousands of tons of foodstuffs being dumped daily
My half full glass could last me until I sprout my wings
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@ j, yes I am aware of the purported economies of scale. I am also aware of the manipulations used to try to ensure that traditional farming methods are not used, despite them being better for the land, environment, wildlife and us. If only you knew how Monsanto etc are trying to ensure that heritage seeds are no longer available for people to grow leaving only GM/terminator/hybrid seeds… Anyhow, as that’s a bit O/T, there are currently no alternatives to using crude oil derived products, at least not until abiotic oil is found. I partly agree with you about the cost, but “never” is a very long time and it is highly conceivable that it will be cheaper to grow locally than to import. BTW, have you heard of “Weimar Germany” and “hyperinflation”? Worth looking at, especially in today’s economic climate.
@ Ray, but would that be such a bad thing? The new St Sampsons school building must have been designed by an architect with their head wedged up their colon or a committee… The island is over-built, which is not good – ask the Chinese, it’s very hard to get agricultural grade land back after you’ve built all over it.
Ray, one comment on the long-life food. The methods that they use may not be benign as far as health. Modern methods of pasteurisation and homogenisation of milk are definitely not all they’re cracked up to be. Don’t put faith in scientists as most are motivated sufficiently by research grants to ignore certain inconvenient issues. Also, don’t trust government guidelines – just look at what’s still happening in Japan after Fukushima and the obfuscation of the authorities (see http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/)
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Ray!
Sorry old boy!
But wings you say.
my oh my what an optimist you are, sorry but I think you’ll join queue like the rest of us.
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Whilst i can understand the feelings towards buildings being erected on greenbelt sites there is however still the need for more affordable private sector housing. For me personally i couldnt care less 1 single iota about resources for the future, there will always be food in some shape or form on a place as affluent as guernsey. Those on the ‘save the world bandwagon’ seem to think we will all starve to death in years to come. This is highly unlikeley, it is people in 3rd world countries that will starve.
What is importat now is housing, not being paranoid about the future which you, the next generation or i will ever get to see.
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Islander
It’s all been sorted.I was kneeling next to Vic Gamble in the Town Church last Easter when we both heard a deep voice say ‘You’re coming with me’
It turned out that it was just a rozzer arresting a shoplifter but Vic looked at me and I looked at Vic and we both nodded in agreement that it was a devine sign
Hope you make it too Islander.In fact I hope you make it many years ahead of me in the queue
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Thank you kindly Sir!
However I think one must take into account the words of a great poet; none other than Rabbie Burns: This is my advice to you:
But mousie thou art no thy lane
In proving foresight may be vain
The best laid schemes o’mice an’ men
Gang aft a-glay
An’lea’e is naught but grief and pain,
For promised Joy.
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Islander
No point trying to impress me with your Guernsey French!
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Aha!
Got you at last:
You thought you knew but you didn’t.
As most people know it isn’t Guernsey French
It’s Chinese Mandarin, or tangerine.
Whatever, it’s juicy enough to contradict the wiles of the clever ones, who taint our beloved…
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