States spends £50k fighting two judicial reviews

The States of Guernsey has spent £50,000 fighting two judicial reviews of a planning application for new homes, both of which it lost.

The reviews and challenges centred on a planning application for 14 properties on the Route Des Barras in the Vale.

Both reviews ruled in favour of the complainant, a neighbour, meaning the application, which was initially approved by the Development and Planning Authority (DPA), is no longer valid.

DPA president Neil Inder said the committee did not intend to challenge the result of the latest judicial review.

Inder added: "The planning application currently remains undetermined and, as with any planning application, the applicant is in discussion with the DPA.

"The legal costs to date have totalled approximately £50,000."

The first judicial review quashed the DPA's decision to grant planning permission on the grounds it had not applied Section 34 of the planning law, which relates to any protected building in the vicinity.

However, the application remained live until a second judicial review was conceded by the DPA before the arguments were heard in court.

Neighbours Jason Brache and Fiona Pollock, who argued the impact on nearby historical buildings had not been considered, welcomed the court's decision to quash the application.

They said: "As farmers, we are just caretakers of this land and we will not stop in our duty to preserve and protect it for future generations."

Developer Hillstone Guernsey Limited said it was working with DPA officers to resolve the issues which had been highlighted by the judicial reviews.

A spokesperson said: "We are looking forward, as opposed to dwelling on the past, and will find a design-led solution that is acceptable to all, to enable the construction of much-needed local market homes on this site, which is within the local centre of St Sampson's."

The planning application was for 14 two-bed homes across four terraces, at three storeys tall.

Val Goodwin, who has lived opposite the proposed development site for the last six years, said she was "thrilled" the judicial review against the application had been successful.

She said: "We saw the actual land area for each house and that they were supposed to be family homes without any garden, and having roof gardens instead of any sort of outside space crammed into this area. It's a very narrow lane here."

Her neighbour Michael Ogier also welcomed the decision.

"Two or three houses, I see no problem. But when they're talking about 14, that's just ridiculous in a lane the size of this lane, which the amount of traffic that would encourage to come down here you know just. It'd be absolute chaos.

"We need houses and it's a fair old plot, but I think 14 houses is overdoing it a little bit, you know."

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