A call to be more joined-up
IT HAS been one of the longest-running and most controversial planning applications of recent times, but there was a sense of inevitability yesterday that Pointues Rocques residents could no longer hold back the development in their neighbourhood.
And indeed, ultimately, the politicians reached the same conclusion. Even if they said they did so ‘with a heavy heart’.
Development & Planning Authority president Deputy Victoria Oliver often comes across as someone who tries to allow common sense to come into play in planning. She and her committee knew that this time there was no overruling professional planning staff who had agreed with the latest proposals put forward on a site which has been earmarked for housing under the Island Development Plan for some years now.
Other DPA members also knew that clarion calls for more housing would be tough to overlook in the current climate.
Islanders and residents of the area will probably now have to hope for the best in terms of how traffic is managed in the area, which was a fundamental concern of most of those who appeared at the open planning meeting.
And they will have to trust that the States can somehow become more joined up in addressing these issues, a complaint raised by Deputy Oliver yesterday. It was the one area where the authority and those making representations against the plans could agree on.