Douzenier keen to challenge Les Echelons closure ruling
A ST PETER PORT douzenier wants to appeal against changes to the southern end of Les Echelons which were approved in the Royal Court this week.
Permission was given on Monday for a section of road to be closed so that a footpath and landscaping can be created outside the Havelet Waters development.
The former Guernsey Brewery site is being developed by Comprop, which made the application.
The court heard that a total of 12 objections had been raised beforehand, but it was not contested in court.
However, Rosie Henderson has written to the Bailiff’s Chambers saying the process was ‘a travesty of justice’ and that she intended to appeal against it.
‘On Thursday 21 June there was a public meeting, which was publicised in the Gazette [Officielle],’ she said. ‘There were 62 people present and the majority of those present objected vociferously to the granting of the application.
‘Speaking for myself, I assumed that objections would be taken seriously and that since they were noted, that was all we could do.
‘At no time was I, or to my knowledge any of the protesters, told that we should be present at court.
‘Indeed, I was given the impression that there was nothing further to be done.
‘I would ask, if we should have attended the court to voice our objections, what was the point of calling a public meeting?
‘Further, what was the point of noting our objections if we should have voiced them in court?’
‘I, for one, would have been in court had I known that my objections would be heard.’
The Bailiff, Sir Richard Collas, said in court that ‘perhaps it was significant that nobody was in court raising any objections’.
Mrs Henderson claimed that objectors were ‘actively discouraged from taking any further steps’ beyond their initial objections.
St Peter Port senior constable Dennis Le Moignan, who chaired that meeting, told those present when the application would go to court.
‘At the meeting people asked and were told a court date and that it would be in the Royal Court,’ he said yesterday. ‘So there was no reason for people to think it was a closed session.
‘However we, the constables, were unaware that people could actually speak in the court.’
