An internal memo from 2001, obtained earlier this year, appeared to indicate that the Board of Administration was at that time leasing the building from a private individual and paying ground rent, and no conveyance can be found since then transferring ownership to the States.
Numerous enquiries and freedom of information requests submitted to the States over the past six months had failed to produce any proof of ownership, but late yesterday P&R provided a statement to the Guernsey Press insisting that the States did own the land and building.
Descendants of the late Percy Ferguson, who once owned large parts of Fermain and was well-known for the passenger boats he ran between there and St Peter Port, remain unconvinced by the States’ position and want more information.
‘We have no evidence to suggest that the land and building from which the Fermain Cafe operates has ever been in private ownership,’ said P&R president Lindsay de Sausmarez.
‘We have carried out a significant amount of research into this issue, going back some 175 years, and records suggest that the land and building from which the cafe currently operates have always been in the ownership of either the Crown, the States or the War Department.’
It is not disputed that a building to the west of the cafe, which is now a toilet block, was previously owned by the Ferguson family. They ran their own cafe from there for many years. A conveyance shows that it was sold to the States in 2002.
However, the States said it found no evidence in its records that the Fergusons ever owned the current cafe, run by Belmiro de Freitas and his partner Manuela Walter, which it said was originally a toilet block, built following a resolution made by the States in 1932.
‘The land and associated military fortifications at Fermain were in the ownership of the States in 1850. We know this because they are cited in a mass transfer of military fortifications from the States to the War Department in 1850,’ said Deputy de Sausmarez.
‘Research indicates the land at Fermain was subsequently transferred back to the States in 1927, and a conveyance was registered on 28 October 1927.
‘Given there has been no challenge to the States’ ownership of what is now the toilet block, nor has there been any challenge with respect to the cafe ownership during the last 90-odd years, the States is confident it has ownership of the land.’
Descendants of the Ferguson family have asked the Scrutiny Committee to get involved.
Graham Mallett, whose late father Horace was Mr Ferguson’s cousin, has asked Scrutiny to look into the circumstances of the building sold to the States in 2002, which he believes was agreed against Mr Ferguson’s wishes at a time when he was in extremely poor health weeks before his death, and also into why the States appeared to have been paying annual ground rent on the current cafe into the 2000s.
‘According to publicly-available information, there does not appear to have been a formal acquisition of the land on which the current tea rooms stand. If you are unable to show me the title deeds for this acquisition then I would like to see the ground rent lease agreement and details of payments made and to whom,’ said Mr Mallett in an email to Scrutiny president Deputy Andy Sloan.
Mr de Freitas and Ms Walter have paid rent to the States to run the beach cafe at Fermain for the past 21 years, but the business has recently been at the centre of a tenancy row which ended up in court.
They won a three-year stay of eviction in September, after the States awarded the lease to Pearl Oyster Ltd., the owner of Town restaurants Lola and Coco, following a tender process run last year.
A petition had been signed by thousands of people in support of Mr de Freitas and Ms Walter.
James Willcocks, also a relative of the Fergusons, called on the States to be more open and transparent about what he still saw as anomalies in the ownership record of the land on which the beach cafe sits.
‘There is an inconsistent record here,’ he said.
‘In 2001, according to an aide memoire from the Board of Administration, land which the toilet block sat on, which is now the cafe, was being rented by the States for £266 a year, which was evidenced in a previous freedom of information request.
‘Yet it’s now claimed they’ve owned it since the early 1900s. Which is it? If they owned the land, why were they paying rent? It doesn’t add up.’
Scrutiny is holding a public hearing this afternoon which is focused primarily on the work of the States Property Unit, for which P&R has responsibility.
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