More Planning anger in the North

This was picked up by the Guernsey Press today, above, as it seems the draft development framework proposing building on their back gardens was released without the knowledge or consent of the owners.

One St Sampson's douzenier has asked for the matter to be put on the parish agenda for urgent discussion, saying: "With the approval of Government in the form of the DP&A [Development and Planning Authority], 6 house owners on Route Militaire are pooling their back gardens to build 25-30 new dwellings on a prime green field site.

"In addition the ground work has been done by civil servants at our expense. This is completely inappropriate. Not least as the civil servants are proposing development on a road they have declared over capacity several times.

£1m windfall
"If approved, the property owners could make £1m each for their gardens, less any costs for “affordable” housing," he said.

Vale Douzenier Martyn Torode told the Guernsey Press that he considered the Island Development Plan to be flawed, especially since it has since been established that the number of new homes the island needs is actually half that the IDP is seeking to provide.

"There has been no development of the road network to accommodate all this extra traffic," he said, and vehicles were often backed up for some distance at Crossways traffic lights, a short distance from the proposed new development of 35 homes at Le Four Banal.

Chief minister Gavin St Pier, as a St Sampson's deputy, was told by one parish official: "There is something very wrong with the way Guernsey governs its planning. Last week our politicians had the opportunity to correct this but again ducked the issue."

• St Sampson's is holding a parish surgery at its Le Murier Douzaine Rooms on Saturday, where this is expected to be discussed. The Vale's next surgery is August 31 when Deputies Sarah Hansmann Rouxel and Jeremy Smithies will be taking questions.