Hopes for high rise homes

Peter Roffey has already tried to push the idea once through his chairmanship of the States Housing Action Group.

He failed to make traction with States Property Services, but, with pressure building to develop key worker housing on a green field in the grounds of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Deputy Roffey wants to reignite the idea.

He said it was an obvious location for at least one block of apartments, perhaps up to 80 or 90 units, for a mix of local people and key workers needing housing.

‘I don’t want to see a St Helier model because I don’t think that fits in with our cultural heritage, it has to be on the right sites,’ he said.

The Frossard House car park is based at the bottom of a steep cliff face, meaning the construction of large buildings in the space would have minimal impact on views of the surrounding commercial and private buildings.

‘I can’t imaging any private property owner squandering so much valuable land on extensive surface parking when the property concerned was in a deep valley which made it suitable for high-rise development,’ said Deputy Roffey.

The island’s only current tower block, Cour du Parc, is nearby in La Charroterie. Built in the late 1960s and now under the management of the Guernsey Housing Association, the 11-storey building consists of 50 one and two-bedroom units.

Some of the apartments are designated as key worker housing while others have been allocated for partial ownership.

‘You have Cour Du Parc around the corner and people don’t think twice about that,’ Deputy Roffey said.

‘I already feel that Guernsey is over-developed and people will always complain about that, but shelter is a basic human requirement and there are a lot of people who do not have housing, or at least adequate housing,’ he said.

‘I am determined this should be considered again before the HAG is wound up.

‘A mix of 80-90 new apartments is too big a prize to let slide.’

Up to 500 people work in Frossard House on any given day, but since the States adopted hybrid working spaces in the car park are much more available than they used to be. Deputy Roffey wants all the spaces to go underground – a few spaces already are on the site – which would be able to accommodate residents and office workers.

Policy & Resources and Health & Social Care, both by majority, want to build nurses’ accommodation on a green field at the PEH. Deputy Roffey is among States members opposing this. He said ‘wrecking green fields is not the solution’ but he said La Charroterie could be ideal for both hospital and town workers without a car.