Hundreds of islanders submit thoughts on IDP review

The first stage of the consultation closed on Monday 29 July, and saw more than 270 submissions, which included more than 500 individual representations.

There had been criticisms that people were being put off putting in submissions due to the complexity of the forms and the tight deadline.

But Development & Planning Authority president Victoria Oliver said she felt that sufficient representations had been received.

‘There were a lot of definite themes and we’re happy with the amount of themes raised.’

She said if more representations had been received, there was a good chance they would be repeating issues already raised.

There were some representations about biodiversity and commercial changes, but most of them were about housing, some in favour, but also a number in objection, particularly to proposals to build on greenfield sites, concerns which Deputy Oliver said she understood.

Now this stage of the process is complete, planners have until the middle of this week to respond to all the representations.

‘It’s a very tight deadline,’ said Deputy Oliver.

The consultation will reopen again on 12 August, this time with planners’ responses, and people will be able to comment on these responses for the next month. However, new issues will not be able to be raised at that stage.

While some of that period will be in the school holidays, Deputy Oliver said she felt happy people would have time to respond.

All the responses will then go to the inspector, with hearings starting in October.

Throughout the consultation, there have been complaints that the forms that people had to fill were complicated and putting people off responding. Deputy Oliver said unfortunately this was a statutory process, so there were few options to make changes.