Guernsey planning review not radical enough, say deputies - BBC.com

Planning review not radical enough, say deputies

Rachel Le Messurier and her assistance dog Lily

Some deputies have criticised a review of the island's planning rules as "not radical enough" to fix the island's housing crisis.

Rachel Davison, who has moved six times in six years due to the shortage of properties, said: "It's been very stressful."

Deputy Neil Inder was one of a number of politicians who said the review of the Island Development Plan (IDP) did not go far enough in getting new houses built.

The Development and Planning Authority (DPA) president says its proposed zoning of six new areas for affordable housing and removing some development requirements cut out red tape.

Mrs Davison said the constant moving was incredibly stressful for her young daughter: "There were points when she was hysterical, she didn't want strangers going around her room when they were looking at properties.

"She wasn't sleeping at night, luckily my little boy was young enough to not notice."

One house was only lived in by the family for a month before the landlady died and it was put up for sale.

Her search for accommodation was made difficult by the fact she needs an assistance dog, because of a heart condition.

"I can't live somewhere with loads of stairs, so we are lucky with where we managed to find. But we were quite limited in the local rental market," she said.

Eventually she and her husband managed to buy a house with support from family and friends.

"There was the stress, but it was also a little bit humiliating," said Mrs Davison.

"To have to go to family and say look we know we are in good jobs, but at the same time we need help, it's never easy to admit you need help."

Deputies 'underwhelmed'

Following a briefing on the review of the IDP some deputies voiced their disappointment with the proposed changes.

Committee for Economic Development (ED) member Nick Moakes said the recommendations were not as "challenging" as he had hoped.

He said: "I thought it would bring in lots of new ideas, turn over new stones and see what we could do, I didn't see a lot of that."

Mr Inder, ED President, was even more critical of the proposals: "We can sit and play with crayons all day, but unfortunately again we are talking on a theoretical level and meanwhile nothing is coming out the ground."

Environment and Infrastructure (E&I) member Aidan Matthews said he was "underwhelmed" by the proposals.

"I thought there would be a lot more radical changes to the planning system and more land given for housing, as we have a really serious housing problem in Guernsey," he said.

Deputy Victoria Oliver, president of the DPA, disagreed with the critique that her committee's plan was not radical enough.

"It's cutting red tape, making things easier for people, while also staying within the established policies we already have," she said.

She's encouraged anyone with views on the DPA's plans to comment on them as part of the consultation running until 29 July.

DPA split on green fields

DPA Vice-President Andy Taylor said he voted against some of the new affordable housing allocations which included new green fields.

It was a part of the proposals which drew some criticism from E&I President Lindsay de Sausmarez who said: "I remain to be convinced about the evidence we're using for affordable housing allocation.

"Essentially the evidence shows we have double the land needed in the existing boundaries, however, the approach here is to bolt on greenfield sites to other centres, which doesn't particularly match with our land use policies and could lead to ribbon development.

Deputy de Sausmarez encouraged people to take part in the consultation process and commended the decision to expand the local areas of biodiversity importance.

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