Closed petition Stop urban sprawl - Save St Helier fields from the Island Plan
Save the St Helier’s fields that have been earmarked for housing in the Island Plan. They are deemed strategically highly important for dairy farming. Jersey cows that Jersey is famous for are losing yet another space. Buzzards roost in the oak trees. Other wildlife and biodiversity will be lost.
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There is enough traffic in the Mont a L’Abbe area already. These proposed houses, new hospital at Overdale plus 51 new flats at Westhill Hotel will make Queens Road even more congested. It is gridlock at times already. Route du Mont a L’Abbe is single lane, used by walkers and could become dangerous with constant car-flow.
Why build on organic, green fields when there are other sites available? Environment and mental health will be affected.
Once these green spaces have gone they can never be returned and the sprawl will continue to grow.
This petition is closed All petitions run for 6 months
1,004 signatures
5,000
Ministers responded
This response was given on 22 June 2021
To help shape the Island Plan, islanders are encouraged to make representations about the draft bridging Island Plan, in writing, before 12 July 2021 at https://haveyoursay.gov.je/consult/islandplan/.
Read the response in full
The draft bridging Island Plan seeks to meet the island’s housing needs over a five-year planning period (from 2021 to the end of 2025). The draft plan seeks to meet the housing needs of the existing local population resulting from changes in the way people live, such as living longer and in smaller households; it seeks to help meet some of the shortfall in housing supply that arose over the period of the last plan, where higher levels of in-migration were greater than originally planned for; and also to meet the housing needs that will arise from the projected increases in population over the coming plan period. It seeks to make provision for approximately 4,150 homes of which approximately 1,500 will be developed as affordable homes.
The spatial strategy of the draft bridging Island Plan seeks to ensure that most of the island’s need for homes is met from within the island’s existing built-up area. A strategic analysis of the supply of land and housing, as well as the capacity of these sources to meet the demand for homes, has been undertaken in the development of the draft Island Plan. This identifies and sets out a range of sources of housing supply, as follows:
• homes under construction
• sites with outstanding planning permission
• capacity of the town
• Government of Jersey and arms-length bodies-owned sites
• ‘windfall’ development, outside of town
• extensions to the built-up area (rezoning)
The proposal to rezone land to help meet the need for homes would, as currently proposed, provide approximately 450 homes or about 11% of overall provision. All of the homes proposed to be developed on these sites would be affordable homes.
The draft Island Plan sets out to rezone land for the provision of affordable homes in the parishes of St Helier, St Saviour, Grouville, St Martin, St John, St Peter and St Ouen.
The sites that are proposed to be rezoned – including Field H1186A, Field H1189 and Field H1198 in St Helier - have been assessed, relative to a range of criteria as set out in the Housing land availability and assessment of sites report , and appendix 1 of the draft bridging Island Plan identifies the key issues for the development of each site.
The process for preparing and approving a new Island Plan is set out in law. This includes and makes provision for islanders to be consulted on the policies and proposals of the draft island Plan, and for any comments made to be reviewed by an independent planning inspector, before the draft island Plan is considered, amended, debated and approved by the States Assembly.
The draft bridging Island Plan is presently the subject of consultation and islanders are invited to make their comments, in writing, on the policies and proposals of the draft plan before the consultation phase closes on 12 July 2021. Advice on how to do this is set out online at https://haveyoursay.gov.je/consult/islandplan/consultation/.
Making comments directly as part of the consultation phase of the draft plan preparation ensures that islanders’ views will be considered by the Minister for the Environment and independent planning inspectors before the States Assembly debate the draft Island Plan in March 2022.