Co-op looking for way to deliver part of plan

FINDING a way to deliver even part of the Leale’s Yard scheme would provide ‘huge impetus’ for the local economy, the Co-op’s chief executive officer has said.

An artist’s impression of what the Bridge could have looked like if the Leale’s Yard plans had gone ahead in full. But two years after this was released, part of the planning permission has lapsed.

Colin Macleod said the society had not yet given up on its Bridge development plans, despite poor market conditions and a lack of appetite from developers.

The Co-op still has 12 months remaining on a full planning permission for 109 residential units, 1,049sq. m. of ground floor retail space, together with parking, a new signalised traffic junction at The Bridge and road safety improvements in Nocq Road.

‘The detailed permission for the main residential block and associated infrastructure, together with the roadways and public spaces, has a further year before expiry,’ said Mr Macleod.

‘The society is very conscious of the huge economic impetus that this scheme could offer Guernsey and we continue to work hard to find a deliverable way forward.’

Mr Macleod was commenting after the society allowed its outline planning permission for 300 residential units, 1,074sq. m. of retail space, public areas and car parking to expire.

It formed part of the-then £100m. masterplan for the long-disused former light industrial site.

The outline planning application was submitted concurrently with the detailed application in 2016.

The scheme as a whole was approved by the Development & Planning Authority in August of that year.

At that same meeting, the Admiral Park development was given the green light, in a move lauded at the time as a much-needed £170m. injection into the local economy.

The Co-op’s original vision for the Bridge was to make it ‘a vibrant, viable town centre and to truly fulfil its role as the island’s second main centre’.