A quart in a pint pot?
Planners want 1,250 new homes ‘to the Bridge’, which will increase the area’s population by 50% and put even more strain on already overloaded roads. With no over-arching infrastructure plan, or knowledge of the aggregate effect of such development. St Sampson’s douzenier Rob Gill asks whether the area will be able to sustain it
PROPOSALS for multiple development sites in the north of the island will increase the Bridge population by 50%. However, the Committee for Environment and Infrastructure has not provided a plan as to how this will impact the area or how this impact will be managed.
With 19 sites proposed, totalling 1,252 new dwellings, the latest application to build eight houses on Pointe Field, a small triangle of land and green field site in Braye Road opposite Alliance, may be the straw that breaks the northerner’s back.
Already there are five units approved nearby by the petrol station, 34 across the road at Cleveley, seven units in Sohier Lane, 17 behind at Camp Dolent, 38 units at Le Maresquet, and the site at Tertre Lane, currently on hold, will have 51 units when complete.
All of this is proposed on Braye Road, potentially the most congested road in the island. Connecting the Crossways junction and the Vale Road junctions, these both proved to be over capacity more than five years ago, and the junction at Alliance is seriously congested now that Alliance has the Tesco franchise.
In St Sampson’s, residents of Pointues Rocques and Robergerie have been battling planning since 2015 to prevent 150 units being built in one of the least accessible areas of the parish. They are also aware that there could be 185 units nearby at Franc Fief and 225 across the road at Le Murier.
In addition, the residents of Oatlands Lane are protesting an application for an industrial yard in a residential area next to the Oatlands visitor attraction.
Like the Braye Road developments, these proposals also sit between over-capacity junctions, Crossways and the Halfway. The Halfway junction was declared over capacity in 2010, when more than 2,280 vehicles an hour were passing through at peak times.
The planning website proposes 1,252 new dwellings in the Bridge main centre, within an area of only 0.85 square miles. With 2,505 current dwellings, this is a 50% increase that will bring with it a 50% increase in population and road traffic.
Meanwhile, the heart of the community, the Bridge, stagnates as it awaits the development of Leale’s Yard, which has lain derelict for some 15 years.
Blame for this is often levelled at the Co-op, however it is the Co-op that has moved this forward and government should be riding with them. The Bridge should be flourishing and not a centre for charity shops, pound shops and takeaways.
In addition to this, St Sampson’s High has been chosen as one of the sites for the two-school model, which will immediately double its student numbers, with a resultant number of parental taxis.
In 2015, I attended the Island Development Plan inquiry. Among the numerous petitioners looking to get their plot into the development area, there was a representation from a gentleman to keep the Alliance triangle out of the area. The independent planning inspector rather cynically accused the man of ‘swimming against the tide’, yet in hindsight it seems he was swimming against a tsunami. Most of the representations were ignored, which appears to be a trend for any consultations invited from Guernsey’s government.
All these figures are available on the gov.gg website. What is not provided is the Island Infrastructure Plan, proposed in 2009, as it has not been written. They have no indication of the aggregate effect of all these developments on road traffic and the information they do possess is outdated. The figures for traffic at Crossways and the Halfway are seven and eight years old respectively. Today’s numbers are not known.
Being generous to the planners, they are fulfilling their mandate, yet are failed by Environment & Infrastructure, which has not produced the infrastructure and road traffic details to aid their decisions. Instead, their time is spent on the trifling detail of adjusting speed limits, installing pelican crossings and cycle hoops.
Regardless, it is not logical for the planners to continue to follow a rigid interpretation of the planning laws by making decisions in a vacuum. Rather, they should exercise common sense and initiative in seeking the current infrastructure status and even simply drive along Braye Road and Pointues Rocques occasionally.
To compound the issue, the Committee for Economic Development is also working in a silo. Our economy continues to flounder, such that there is little appetite for major construction. This will result in the developers picking the most viable sites to develop, such as green field sites like Pointe Field, while leaving brown field sites like Leale’s Yard to remain derelict.
Ultimately, it is our taxes that allow us to enjoy the services of these government departments. When will we get value for money?