DPA gives Leale’s Yard project the green light

But the future of the site still hangs in limbo, with many more details yet to be resolved.

The seven-acre site has been granted permission to be transformed into 338 homes, a multi-storey car park for 300 cars and about 14,000sq. metres of retail and commercial floorspace, including a large Co-op and associated landscaping, service roads and infrastructure.

But many more details such as its financial viability will need to be finalised.

Some 50 stakeholders attended the open planning meeting yesterday to discover the fate of the derelict site near the Bridge, and five representations were put towards the committee, ultimately

contributing to the granted proposal.

Channel Islands Co-operative CEO Mark Cox declined his opportunity to make a representation during the meeting, but said that he was really happy with the result.

‘We invested a lot of time and effort in engaging the community and States members up-front and that seems to have paid off,’ he said.

‘People have recognised it is a really important site for the community and the island in general, so it’s important we get it right.

‘There’s still clearly a lot of work to do as this is only the outline planning and there’s a lot of detail to work up, but it’s great to have so much positivity and support.

‘On a site like that you’ll never ever please everybody so there’s always some choices to make and as you’ve heard today the financial viability on this site is tight, so we’re keen to get it moving and deliver the housing.

‘We’ve got a lot of detail to work up, designs to work up in more detail as to what the site will look like. In principle, we’ve got the go-ahead now to invest further money in working those up into detailed designs in conjunction with our development partner.’

Sitting for the DPA were president Victoria Oliver and members John Dyke, Sasha Kazantseva-Miller and Bob Murray. Vice-president Andy Taylor resigned from the DPA on the morning of the meeting.

Questions posed by the committee were considered, and all voted in favour of the development, with three further conditions – the clarification of access to Nocq Road as one of the conditions, opting to make the hours of operation for some units a reserved matter for consideration at a later date, and reviewing the design codes for green spaces.

‘We’ve listened to the representations made and believe that the principles of this application are in accordance with the vision of the development framework for the Leale’s Yard Regeneration Area, I hope this will be a place to live, work and play,’ said Deputy Oliver.

‘In granting outline planning permission, we’ve given our approval to the general principles of this development (the master plan), enabling the applicants to work through the finer details to be brought before the Authority to ensure that this development brings important regeneration and rejuvenation to the Bridge.’