Leale's Yard 'can be cleared by end of 2026'

The Leale's Yard site can be cleared by the end of 2026, Guernsey's chief minister believes.

In a lookback at her first six months as the President of Policy and Resources Committee, Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez said she believed work could even start by the end of next year on the new infrastructure for the development.

The BBC understands the States is in talks to buy some buildings in the vicinity to link States-owned sites up.

De Sausmarez said she would like "the infrastructure to be getting into the ground or at least be progressing in terms of the planning stages" by the end of 2026.

In July, the States announced it would buy the site for £4.5m from the Channel Island Co-Op.

The States is advertising for experts to help create a masterplan for The Bridge & Braye du Valle redevelopment, which will include Leale's Yard.

Policy and Resources has proposed clearing and commencing site development at Leale's Yard as one of its five "super priorities" for the political term, alongside:

• Deciding and delivering tax reform

• Agreeing and advancing a sustainable health and care system

• Shaping and strengthening the focus on early years and families

• Determine and design future harbours infrastructure

De Sausmarez said: "The implementation of this infrastructure is going to take longer because it's a really big job.

"It's not just about transport infrastructure, it's about utilities infrastructure, it's about making sure that we've got an adequate and future-proofed electricity grid, for example, and all the other utilities that we need."

When questioned about whether the plans for the site would relate to the previous schemes, she said: "The plans from the old one were the plans from the old one.

"I think we've got a far better opportunity that we would be fools to overlook by actually improving those plans to deliver wider benefits.

"So, completely understandably, when the site was in private ownership, they were just concerned about the site itself.

"As the government, the States has got a brilliant opportunity to look well beyond that and see how we can support the wider area."

She admitted the States had done an "enormous" amount of the planning work already, when it came to the future of that part of the island.

She said: "Leale's Yard is a fundamentally important part of that jigsaw puzzle.

"So I think the States has got a really, really good opportunity actually to box clever and make sure that the plans are an improvement on previous iterations, and work a lot harder for the area as a whole and actually help to enable other adjacent sites."

In the last political term, the States bought a number of sites, including the Kenilworth Vinery for £6.5m, and earmarked them for housing.

Some politicians labelled the purchases "wastes of money", as they had issues which needed to be overcome before housing could be built on them.

When pressed on whether she expected houses to be built on the site before the end of the political term, De Sausmarez said: "I think it is a reasonable expectation that we will see some development at that site.

"The clearing, certainly, we're going to get that under way as soon as we can, but even that is quite a complex process.

"What I do need to do is manage expectations about where we'll be at the end of this political term, because I don't think anyone thinks it is realistic that we will have people holding keys to their new homes and actually moving in.

"I don't think we are going to have hundreds of completed housing units in that area by the end of the political term, but I think there will be very visible signs of progress."

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