Residents up in arms over new homes plan

The project centres around the Grande Rue car park, with new developments on green spaces to the north and south-east of it. The project would also see the car park redeveloped to make it safer.

The development site would stretch from Grande Rue to the rear of St Martin’s Primary School.

Despite being large enough to trigger the GP11 planning policy to make sure part of the site is affordable housing, that may not apply due to the amount of money being spent on improving the infrastructure around the school.

Bordering one of the fields that could be developed is the home of Anne Smith, who has lived there for more than 30 years.

‘It would be dreadful, that is my back garden. I didn’t actually realise they’d moved forward with it all,’ she said.

When the initial development framework was put forward in 2018, suggesting the site could be used for housing, Mrs Smith submitted a formal objection to the Development & Planning Authority.

‘I would absolutely object again,’ she said. ‘The value of the house went down when the framework was put in and it’s bound to go down again.

‘What we can’t see is where people are going to park and how they’re going to get out onto the road. It’s been perfect and lovely living here, it’s just lovely to be able to hear the children.’

Grande Rue car park has more than 70 spaces, which are used by parents of children at the school, as well as homeowners and visitors to businesses in the area.

If the plans are to go ahead, a new parking area would be developed within the residential site, but there are concerns that those who currently use the car park might struggle to find a space.

Another nearby resident who objected to the initial framework was Helmut Pichler, whose house sits to the right of one of the green spaces.

‘There’s been quite a lot of objections and I was one of them. I’d much rather they leave it as it is. It’s going to be so built up and become a town settlement – it’s a village and it has to have some spare green space,’ he said.

Margaret and Brian Harris live in a property just metres from the school, and their field will run adjacent to the proposed development. But they were unconcerned about noise nuisance from any development.

‘I shouldn’t think it would bother us. We don’t even hear the children anymore, we are used to it,’ said Mrs Harris.

Although she was not concerned about the build, she expected that it would cause issues with parking.

‘It’s bad enough now people trying to park. For Valpy’s the parking is needed, it is a lovely shop.’

. The planning application can be viewed at https://www.gov.gg/liveplanningapplications.