‘Support my plans to build dream home’
AN ISLANDER is hoping the public will support his plans to build his dream home on a piece of Castel land.
Steve Ogier, 45, said he had already spoken to the planners about the piece of land off a green lane by La Percee, close to Castel School. But they had told him it was not even worth putting in a planning application because the current Island Development Plan focuses on having new homes inside the local centres.
He is hoping that by raising his story in the media, it will come to the attention of islanders, deputies and parish officials, who might be able to help him.
‘I am just a local man who wants to build a small, two-bedroom home on his own lane,’ he said.
‘As I am in the lower end of the pay bracket, I am finding it very difficult to find my own [home] and, to me, I think this seems to be my one chance of owning my own home. This could be a life-changing opportunity for me and others like me.’
A Planning Services spokesman confirmed that the piece of land is situated where new housing development is precluded under the Island Development Plan.
Mr Ogier bought the site from a farmer in 2011 and said the land was useless for agriculture because it floods easily. It also has two small concrete bunkers.
Over the years it has been used for dumping rubbish and when Mr Ogier bought it he cleared the rubbish and spoke to an architect, who suggested applying to convert the redundant bunkers into habitable dwellings – which might be allowed under planning law. However, the structures were too small for this.
Mr Ogier is currently living in temporary accommodation and said he wanted to build a small eco-home with a grass roof for him and his eight-year-old daughter, Evelyn. He said it would have little or no impact on surrounding properties.
‘I consider it to be far better to use “unusable” land like this and make the best possible use of it, where we can, rather than keep destroying the good, usable agricultural fields,’ he said.
