Development & Planning Authority president Neil Inder has told them he will clamp down on the ‘bad behaviour’ of clearing sites before obtaining consent to build on them.
He is concerned that the practice is unfair on neighbours and could be seen as an attempt to force the authority’s hand to grant planning applications.
‘I will not tolerate developers clearing sites before submitting planning applications. That behaviour is unacceptable and it will not be rewarded,’ he said.
‘Where it occurs, we will use our powers to require remediation. The planning system must work fairly for islanders, for communities and for responsible developers.’
However, Deputy Inder’s warning, issued in his first update statement to the States since being elected DPA president, came just 12 days after the authority granted retrospective permission for a temporary development in a green field next to the airport following site clearance which was undertaken without approval.
Neighbours and environmental groups objected last autumn when trees were felled and earth piles appeared suddenly on land, part of which is zoned as an agricultural priority area, near the development of a new aircraft hangar.
The authority did not order the land to be remediated to its previous state, and on 12 March granted retrospective permission for building materials to be stored there temporarily.
Deputy Inder told the Guernsey Press yesterday that he inherited the case when he became DPA president in October and that it would have been handled differently if he had been in post at the time it started.
‘This site had already been cleared when I became president of the DPA.
Although enforcement action was under way when I took up my position, if this had happened on my watch I’d have dealt with it much sooner,’ he said.
‘Since becoming president, I’ve made it clear through engagement with conservation groups and more widely that I’m taking a strong view on this.
‘When a retrospective application was eventually submitted, it still had to be considered on its own merits in line with the law and planning policies, which is why it was approved retrospectively, but pre-emptive clearance didn’t help the applicant in anyway.’
Retrospective permission was granted on the condition that stockpiled material must be removed by the end of March 2027 and the land reseeded and returned to agricultural land in accordance with a landscaping plan which must be approved prior to the removal of the stockpiles.
Deputy Inder’s warning to developers followed a recent meeting between the authority and environmental groups Guernsey Trees, the National Trust and La Societe Guernesiaise about the premature destruction of green spaces.
He told the Assembly that the authority would protect biodiversity and protect green spaces ‘wherever possible’.