‘Some people want to go back to the IDC’
ONE member of the Development & Planning Authority said he had not been present when his colleagues voted against having an open planning meeting to determine the Cobo development.
Deputy Marc Leadbeater said he had been in Switzerland at the time. ‘If I’d been at the meeting I would have recommended that an open planning meeting was held and I’m disappointed at what’s been done,’ he said
‘If John [DPA president Deputy John Gollop] thinks it’s a mistake not to have an open meeting then I think it’s a positive thing as not everyone would have been prepared to admit it.
‘Unfortunately though, the damage is done.’
Castel constable John Cook said the Cobo development was a huge disappointment to the constable and the douzaine.
‘An open planning meeting was never held and the objections of the parish deputies and the public weren’t accepted,’ he said.
The public will now have to live with the consequences of what has been done. Mr Cook believed 28 written objections had been made to the original plans, including by the constables and douzaine.
‘We also objected to the amended plans, as did five others. The planners used that as an excuse saying there were fewer complaints but I think people who objected the first time thought their objections were still valid for the amended plans.’
Castel deputy Barry Paint agreed.
‘If they have made a mistake then at least they have admitted it, or is it just John? [Gollop],’ he said.
‘Open planning meetings give people the chance to have their say in front of politicians that they have elected,’ he said.
‘It was a bad mistake of government and now we’ll have to wait and see what happens at the next election.’
Deputy Paint said one of his concerns was the narrowness of the road where the access was.
‘It concerns me, particularly with all the traffic going to and from the building site. Then when it’s finished, people might have to wait in the road behind someone else who is waiting for the electric gates to open.’
Deputy Gollop said he thought also that people who had objected to the first set of plans would have expected them to be relevant to the second application.
He said the committee was not a popular one to be on. This was evidenced by the reluctance of people to put their names forward following the resignation from the committee of Deputy Lester Queripel, Alderney representative Alex Snowdon was the only taker.
‘I think a lot of people were thinking about the next election,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of noise within the States that people want something different with planning but they don’t seem to be sure what. There is a feeling from some that they would like to return to the old IDC [Island Development Committee] system with a more subjective and politically-driven approach.’
