It has formed an ad hoc committee to take a broad look at the issues, including housing density and traffic management, before reporting back to the douzaine and then St Sampson’s.
St Sampson’s parishioners who attended a packed parish meeting on the Saltpans proposal were very unhappy with both issues and those concerns continue to spread.
‘This is a complex and sensitive topic,’ said senior constable Richard Leale, ‘and one which requires some deep consideration, which is why the Vale will consider it at its next meeting, when the sub-committee can report back.
‘I appreciate that this might be slower than some like, but such an important proposal deserves full consideration and any statement I might make on it needs to be endorsed by the douzaine as a whole.’
He said that the parish did share many of the concerns expressed by St Sampson’s about the impact of so much development now in the pipeline.
Mr Leale said that while it was clear that many northern residents were unhappy with the States’ long-standing policy of concentrating development in the St Peter Port and St Sampson’s corridor and the Bridge, changing it would require a planning inquiry and a States U-turn on previous decisions to preserve greenfield sites.
‘I hope we will be looking at this in more detail,’ he said, ‘because if there is little or no chance of getting that major policy revision through before work starts on the new homes at Saltpans Park, plus many others at Leale’s Yard and elsewhere in the north, then perhaps the central issue becomes dealing with the consequences of such development.’
He said that his personal view was that this hinged on proper traffic management that recognised people’s wants and needs to own and use cars, and not be shoehorned into a planner or politician’s one-size-fits-all bike, bus and walk ‘anti-car approach’.
‘People are rightly worried about the impact of so many houses being proposed for the north of the island – and that’s before the Guernsey Development Agency’s grand plans for Black Rock and Griffith’s Yard are pursued,’ he said.
‘But the other factor we need to take into account is the very real need for more homes in the island and some of these sites, like Pointues Rocques and Leale’s Yard, have taken far too long to develop for local houses.’
Mr Leale said that his comments, posted on the Vale parish website, recognised some of the complex and interdependent issues raised by the proposed Saltpans development, but also the ‘legitimate fears’ of residents about over-development in the north.
That, he said, was why the two parishes’ sub committees and the douzaines needed time to look at the issues carefully and in depth while acknowledging there was also a wider island dimension on which government had already reached a policy decision.
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