Listed building Dolphins ‘can be demolished and rebuilt’

It is very rare for permission to be granted to knock down a protected building and careful consideration led to it becoming the longest open planning application in years.

Dolphins, Route de Jerbourg, St Martin's, near the Doyle Monument, was built in 1937 by a Harley Street doctor.

As well as being historic, the building was listed due to its art deco style, which is rare in Guernsey, and due to the fact that the property has remained largely unchanged in 80 years.

However, the structure was deemed unsound and needed more than £1m.-worth of repairs.

A planning report said that the property owners had the right to be able to live in their home, which they could not do if the building was unsound and incapable of repair.

Dolphins was last occupied in 2017, but the building has suffered from structural problems, including cracks and damp, for decades.

A number of structural engineers’ reports were considered by the planners, who looked at whether the building could be repaired.

‘The outcome of this is that, while it could be concluded that the building is technically capable of repair, it would rely on a precise sequence of works being carried out to make the building safe,’ the planners wrote.

‘At each stage of the sequence it could be found that the building cannot be repaired, and furthermore, the sequence of works would require the partial demolition of defective walls which carries with it the risk of collapse, as these wall are effectively supporting each other.

‘As there does not appear to be any practical way in which these works could be undertaken that would guarantee that such a collapse would not occur, it is considered that it would be unreasonable for the authority to adopt a dogmatic position on this issue.’

Based on this, permission was granted to demolish the building and allow a building of similar size and scale to be built in its place.

Before being demolished, the existing building will have to be surveyed for historical reasons and a record given to planning.

‘In light of the lengthy and detailed assessment that has been carried out in relation to this application, it is considered that the very high threshold imposed by both the Law and Policy GP5 has been passed, and it is therefore recommended that planning permission be granted,’ the planners wrote.

The application was the planners’ longest running planning application, having been submitted in August 2018 by the Manu Forti Trust, with Julia White and Victoria Russell as trustees.

Miss White was relieved to hear the permission was granted.

‘We are quite pleased to have a decision at last,’ she said.

They are now deciding what to do next.