Six months wasted
A DRAINED Steve Lansdown admits he had strongly considered pulling the plug on his multimillion-pound La Grande Mare development. But, he said yesterday, it is now full steam ahead.
The owner is critical of the Development & Planning Authority for what he believes was an unnecessary and costly six-month delay in reaching a final approval for the plans, which came through on Thursday.
‘It has been incredibly frustrating and emotionally draining as well.
‘To be honest the decision we have got is great, but it is a decision that in my view could have been made six months ago and should have been made six months ago.
‘I think the conditions we have got in the planning permission look, on the face of it, acceptable and what I expected. It is something you do on an ongoing basis going forward, particularly with ecology, archaeology and hydrology, and how the estate operates.
‘I feel we have wasted quite a bit of time and a lot of energy and suffered sheer frustration. In my mind, it is not a great advert of how to get things done in Guernsey, but now we are there we will put all that behind us and get on with it.’
Clearly, the owner of Bristol City Football Club and the Bristol Bears rugby team has not been enamoured with the process and said he did consider scrapping the plans.
‘Absolutely [I did]... although some of the enthusiasm has come back for the project, I did fall out of love with it and really felt like walking away.’
He has, though, been regenerated and cheered by the reaction of members and the public in the last 48 hours.
‘But as for confidence in doing projects in Guernsey, I don’t think it has been a great example.
‘I started off with great enthusiasm and felt I was cooperating well with an open book, but as time has gone on it has been dragged through the mire and it has got longer and longer to get to the point where we should have been six months ago.’
