Final green space along Vale road could be built on

Les Mares Pellees Road runs behind Braye Road Garage and falls just within the Island Development Plan Bridge outer boundary, leaving it vulnerable to development.

The IDP map shows the road with a number of green spaces and large gardens, but these have largely vanished in the last 10 years, with 20 new houses built in three separate developments.

And now a planning application for six houses has been submitted for a large front garden.

Residents yesterday were preparing themselves for yet another development on their doorstep

‘I really don’t like the idea, we have already seen a lot of building in this road,’ said Jane Le Ber, who remembered the road as a child.

‘I used to play in one of the gardens that is now all housing, it was a wonderful green space.’

She said she probably would not object to the development.

‘What’s the point, it’s just going to happen anyway,’ she said.

Another neighbour lamented the potential loss of the ‘last bit of green in the road’.

‘This road was very different once but the houses with character have been torn down,’ they said.

‘I will object, but it is zoned for development, so I don’t think we will be able to stop it.

‘This is an application to sell the whole site to a developer, so you don’t know what you will end up with. It could be bigger than just the six houses on that plot.’

Under the proposals two, two-storey detached houses would be built on the road boundary of La Prima. There would then be two pairs of two-storey houses created behind them.

The current house is at the back of the site, and would not form part of the development.

The road has faced major new developments in the last 10 years.

In 2013 a house on the southern side of the road called Quatrieme was demolished, and 11 new houses were built.

Then in 2017 permission was granted to build a new clos of seven houses in the rear garden of West Wood – a house on the junction with Sohier Road. An outbuilding on that site was converted into another home.

Finishing touches are being put to two new homes built on a triangle field opposite Alliance.

A number of residents were concerned on the impact any development would have on traffic.

‘This road should be one-way,’ one neighbour said.

‘It’s very narrow and it’s become a rat run. We have cars, especially at school pick-up, going 40mph past our house.

‘Where does it end in the Vale? How many more houses are they going to build?’ he said.

However, one resident who did not want to be named was supportive.

‘Guernsey needs housing,’ he said. ‘And looking at the plans, they look just like the sort of houses that the island requires.’