‘Let’s stop house building and force the use of Leale’s Yard’
ALL multi-housing developments in the north of the island should be frozen immediately to force developers into buying portions of Leale’s Yard, according to Vale senior constable Richard Leale.
He echoed comments by two of the district’s deputies, Matt Fallaize and Laurie Queripel, about States involvement.
‘I do wonder whether the time has finally come for the States to buy the land and, if no agreement can be reached on price, then compulsory purchase has to be considered,’ he said.
‘Leale’s Yard and the opportunities it provides are just too important to the northern parishes and the island generally simply to be left to stagnate in this way.’
He suggested that the site could be sold in sections, if necessary, but with any future development following a broad plan so that the style of all the buildings was similar.
‘The planners and the States need to step in and insist that future housing developments are on that site first, before proceeding with the “infill” builds along Braye Road, Tertre Lane and elsewhere,’ Mr Leale is reported as saying on the Vale parish website.
When spoken to by the Guernsey Press, he added that a deadline should be put on the Co-op starting work on the site, given that the last tenants left it some 10 years ago. ‘That’s plenty of time to get your act together,’ he said.
He believes that once all permissions for the Co-op’s plans for the site expire, the States should step in. ‘The bottom line is that where’s there’s a will there’s a way to sort these things out,’ he said.
‘It will only be through some brave decision-making that the planning blight the Co-op has inadvertently caused in the north can finally come to an end.’
Development & Planning Authority president John Gollop said that in his opinion it would not be possible for the DPA to give blanket refusal to new projects and direct developers or owners to purchase parts of Leale’s Yard, ‘given reasonable expectations, professional consistency, law, and the possibility of legitimate appeals and judicial review’.
The Island Development Plan received the unanimous backing of the States – after some amendment – less than two years ago and it is not yet due a review, he said.
As for splitting the Leale’s Yard site into separate parcels of land, he did not think it likely the States would even consider such a ‘challenging’ policy.
‘The DPA has already given permission in principle for a holistic Dunnell Robertson plan for some 400 housing units in the site,’ he said.
Given his position he could not show prejudgement or bias for or against possible development in any parish. ‘That said, I do agree that I personally find frustrating the reactive nature of planning politically and would support and welcome a Policy & Resources/STSB joint economy initiative to develop the Leale’s Yard site as perhaps a PFI public-private enterprise, hopefully without the necessity of any compulsory purchase considerations.’
He concluded by saying that if the Vale parish and its ratepayers wished to buy undeveloped land so they could choose not to build on it, and pay a fair market price, ‘I would have no argument personally against that if it didn’t have a medium-term impact on housing targets’.
