Economic Development pushed for Idlerocks site redevelopment
GUERNSEY’S tourism market has moved on from the days of ‘British Rail workers and cabaret,’ and there is still a lot of investment going into the sector, the politician leading on tourism in the island has said, following the release of plans to turn a former top hotel site into a luxury home.
Neil Inder said it was he and his Economic Development Committee who had pushed for sites such as Idlerocks to be able to come out of the visitor accommodation sector rather than stay derelict.
After discussions with the Development & Planning Authority, the DPA drew up a list of 10 visitor sites that included Idlerocks, Forest Park (formerly St Margaret’s Lodge), L’Eree Bay and Bon Port, which, once the law is changed, will be exempt from the need to apply for a change of use from visitor to residential accommodation.
Before the most recent application for Idlerocks, plans had been submitted for a hotel on the site along with a house, but the developers wanted to build the house first.
Deputy Inder said he did not believe a hotel would ever be built on the site and he believed the same was true of other sites such as Bon Port and L’Eree Bay.
It was a matter of being realistic about the future of these sites, said Deputy Inder, and he suggested that those States members who are convinced derelict hotel sites must remain as hotels, should buy the land and build one.
He was pleased to see a sensible proposal for the Idlerocks site.
‘I assume it’s going to be open market and that it’s going to be for an ultra-high net worth individual. That’s good for the construction industry and it’s good for the area.
‘Of course it would be lovely to see a hotel at Idlerocks. It would be lovely to see a hotel at Bon Port. And there’s no-one stopping turning L’Eree Bay Hotel back into a hotel. All we’re saying is “If you don’t want it to be a hotel, can we get part of the engine of the economy going by building something else?”’
He did not believe it right or fair for holding companies to sit on prime property sites without utilising them.
‘It’s important for Guernsey and these people need to do something with them.’
Times had changed since the heyday of the island’s tourism industry, he accepted.
‘We’ve moved on from Sealink, British Rail workers and cabarets,’ he said. ‘We’d actually moved on 20-30 years ago.’
A further indication of the changing tourism sector was the building of the new 100-bed Premier Inn at Admiral Park.
‘And we’ve got people building self-catering units, there’s interest in glamping sites.
‘There’s a lot of massive investment going into these islands at the moment. There’s a hell of a lot of confidence in the tourism sector.’
n The exemptions law is being prepared and is expected to come back to the States in February.
