Support for post office cafe proposed in St Peter’s plan
Residents of St Peter’s were largely supportive of ideas to enhance the area laid out in the St Peter’s Community Plan.
The document was drawn up by the St Peter’s Community Plan Committee, an independent group of parishioners, after consultation with local residents.
Nancy Golland lives close by and often walks to the post office with her grandson. She believed the plan was a good reflection of what local residents wanted.
‘It’s a good idea to do it this way as it gives everyone a chance to have their say before decisions are made,’ she said.
‘I think the plan reflects that residents don’t want massive change and want to keep the sense of community.’
Popular ideas include enlarging St Peter’s post office with a cafe, pedestrian improvements and upgrading the clubhouse at Sylvans.
‘A cafe would be great and even the unused toilet block would make a wonderful tea garden,’ said Mrs Golland.
‘I’m not totally convinced by the traffic-calming measures as the road isn’t that busy, but one crossing would be a good idea.’
Stephanie Andrijasevic, who currently runs the post office, said she was broadly in favour of plans outlined in the consultation, including the cafe.
‘People come from across the island to use the shop and a cafe would give them extra incentive,’ she said.
‘We have considered a cafe ourselves in the past, but it is not something we would personally take on at the moment. In the future it may be something we would want to branch out into.’
The post office building is owned by the parish and Ms Andrijasevic said she had had no discussions with the parish regarding the plan.
She added that she was in favour of any changes that would make life easier for pedestrians.
‘When people come they do tend to park and walk between ourselves and the supermarket, Styx and the doctors, so anything that made that safer would be good,’ she said.
‘Rue de Brehaut is particularly narrow and gets a lot of two-way traffic, so we would support anything to improve that.’
St Peter’s resident Florence Clare was unaware of the plan, but thought a cafe on the post office site sounded like a great idea.
‘There is only the silversmiths nearby and that’s not always open,’ she said.
‘Some safer crossings on the main road would be good as well as there is nothing at the moment. If they are opening a cafe, crossings would make it much safer, especially if they have younger children.’
The consultation showed that new housing developments in the area would be unpopular, but that residents were generally in favour of being able to subdivide existing properties more easily and creating extra housing that way.
Mrs Golland said that it would be of benefit to her.
‘Our house is massive and there are now just two of us. It would be good to have the option to convert it into two or more dwellings, so we can stay in the area,’ she said.
‘It’s an open market house and the chances of downsizing nearby are very limited.’
However, there was one dissenting voice found by the Guernsey Press among the visitors to the area.
Lina Le Billon, who lives in St Saviour’s but uses the post office regularly, said: ‘I like it as it is – if the building is safe, why change it?
‘You’d end up with some modern monstrosity. It’s quirky and has character, that’s what the island is about. What’s next? Knocking down Cobo Tearooms?’
The plan can be viewed at gov.gg/stpetercommunityplan. All islanders are invited to provide their comments via e-mail at planning@gov.gg or in writing. The closing date for comments is Tuesday 28 May.
