WHEN Chris Shepley, the UK’s former chief planning inspector, conducted a review of the equivalent service here after the demise of the Island Development Committee, he was less than impressed with many aspects of what he saw.

This was no surprise. That improvements were needed was recognised and one of the reasons for commissioning the report. His recommendations are also largely due to the enhancement of the service now provided and the greater transparency and openness with which it is conducted.

One of his central criticisms, however, was not just the lack of resources available but the ease with which other departments were able to circumvent proper planning processes.

‘It might be said that the fundamental issue which the States needs to address is the way the States and its departments operate, the way decisions are made (or not made) at member level in the centre of government and the political structure which leads to conflict, pressure and uncertainty for the planners,’ he said.

A good example was the purchase of Les Nicolles for the new St Sampson’s schools without reference to the planners resulting, Mr Shepley said, in ‘a quite inappropriate site, not close to its catchment or to main routes, and with likely traffic problems on the approaches which islanders will regret for generations’.

That prediction came true before the schools were opened when people in Baubigny and Les Gigands had their lives blighted by a one-way system needed to ameliorate the folly of using Les Nicolles in the first place.

And now that Route Militaire is closed and motorists are ‘rat running’ through the area, it is clear that what has been done regarding traffic management is merely a sticking plaster when the real problem is the location of the schools.

Nothing can be done about that now and everyone is living the consequences of a bad decision. It was one reason why the Shepley report recommended a planning system in which the chief minister ensured that it acted in a corporate way, ‘without members who simply represent the interests of particular departments’.

Under the Guernsey system, however, that is not allowed to happen, which is why expensive mistakes will be made again.