DPA says no this time to ‘triangle field’ houses

At an open planning meeting to consider revised plans for the two homes on the site, formally known as La Pointe, the panel of three members of the Development & Planning Authority rejected the plans by two votes to one.

This was the second time in three weeks that the topic had been discussed, after the matter was deferred when the DPA trio was unable to reach a majority decision.

Outgoing DPA president Dawn Tindall had rejected the plans on that occasion, while member Victoria Oliver – who was re-elected – gave them the go-ahead.

It was the impact of the development on nearby protected buildings that occupied most of Deputy Tindall’s thoughts, and, despite being assured by planners that the two houses would have a negligible impact, she said that this was a subjective decision and, in her opinion, they would, so she could not approve the plans.

Deputy Oliver said the same this time, although with the comment that she would have rejected them if she could but was unable to do so since the Island Development Plan allowed development on this field and she felt her hands were tied.

That left the casting vote to Alderney representative Alex Snowdon, whose previous concern had been with the impact of the properties on the trees in the field and had led to him abstaining.

While his fears on the trees issue had been allayed, he was now worried about an illustration provided by the planners late in the meeting that attempted to show how the notion of ‘setting’ was applied in relation to listed buildings.

The illustration showed the two listed buildings next to the site, one on Braye Road and one in Les Mares Pellees.

A zone shaded red in front of each property showed areas where any development would have been considered to have an adverse effect on the setting of these houses.

But a zone covering the development site was graded from bright green near the junction between the two roads, meaning no effect, getting slightly darker toward the two listed buildings meaning ‘medium impact’.

It was this ‘medium impact’ that worried Mr Snowdon, and both he and Deputy Oliver said they wished they had seen this illustration sooner.

Director of planning Jim Rowles said the illustration was not part of the application and had been prepared by the department simply as a visual aid.

Mr Snowdon said that impact zones should also have been drawn in regard to other listed buildings further up Les Mares Pellees and two opposite the site in Braye Road.

His concerns over the impact led to him rejecting the application.

Speaking after the meeting, site owner Simon Holland said he would make a decision over whether or not to appeal the decision after a live appeal, due to be heard in two weeks, was decided.

This will be in relation to his initial application to build six properties on the site.

Architectural advisor to the project, Andrew Ozanne, said that the decision taken by the DPA politicians had been a purely subjective one and he pointed out that Deputy Tindall had been a member of the DPA when it approved the site for housing.

‘The policies have very clear objective tests and we complied with all those objective tests,’ said Mr Ozanne. ‘So you have to question the suitability of Deputy Tindall and Alderney representative Snowdon as members of a States committee.’

Sarah Crisp spoke against the plans during the meeting, on behalf of her sister, nearby resident Jane Smithies.

Afterwards she said she hoped that the new States would look into problems with the rezoning of land, since she said the field in question had never been rezoned for this kind of development:

‘There should be something done to protect the green spaces,’ she said.