Planners block Fort owner’s bid for cladding on monument

The Development & Planning Authority said the cladding disguised part of the protected monument and failed to enhance it.

Bembridge Ltd, which bought the fort from the States for £1m. in 2019 in what later became a controversial deal, has six months to lodge an appeal or must remove the cladding which was added without permission.

The DPA has previously permitted extensive development and restoration works at the fort.

‘There have been a number of applications to make changes to the site or buildings which have provided opportunities to restore the monument to its 19th century state,’ it said.

‘Such works have complied with current policy in terms of the appreciation of the monument, but such consideration must also be given to the German Occupation features of significance on the site. The stone cladding seeks to disguise this Second World War feature as something from the mid-19th century. This is contrary to conservation practice, [planning] law and policy... that places an emphasis on the clear understanding of the site by the public, so that the shared history of the island may be understood.’

The application argued that granite cladding had been applied to the eastern face of the concrete structure, which was said to be of low quality anyway, to help it blend in with the surrounding Victorian granite walls.

Bembridge Ltd has said that it wants to restore the fort to how it would have looked when first built in 1855. Although many of its proposed projects have been allowed to go ahead, a compliance notice was issued in 2019 for failing to comply with planning conditions and undertaking work without permission, including partial demolition of a machine gun position.

The Guernsey Press recently enquired about another planning application at the fort relating to the repair and reinstatement of a gun emplacement, for which permission was granted last year with numerous conditions attached.

The authority refused to answer questions about the current status of that project, including the conditions it imposed, and instead officials provided a general statement in which they said that they ‘visit ongoing developments from time to time to ensure compliance with the conditions of planning applications’ and explained the process of reporting and dealing with allegations of planning breaches.

Bembridge director Julian Mountain, who lives at Fort Richmond, recently settled a long-running dispute with his neighbours, the Allez family, who had been forced to spend tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees to regain control of their home after part of it was sold in the 2019 fort conveyance despite the States accepting for years that the rightful boundary already gave the family full ownership.

The States has since tried to wash its hands of responsibility for the Allez’s lengthy and costly ordeal, defying Deputy Andrew Taylor’s repeated attempts to secure an apology or recompense for the family.