Development ‘needs to be shared’

Development, especially new houses, should be spread more evenly around the island, Vale’s Senior Constable has said.

Richard Leale was expressing his personal opinion after St Sampson’s Douzaine called in the Guernsey Press for a halt on building in the Bridge area until roads and services have been looked at and improved as necessary.

The concerns follow the possibility of 400 homes being built at Leale’s Yard, 150 at Pointues Rocques, 185 at Franc Fief and a further 225 at Le Murier.

‘I would like to see development more evenly spread over the Island,’ said Mr Leale in response to the concerns. 

‘When the latest Island Development plan was produced a few years ago more notice should have been taken of it. It was so bulky and written in civil service-speak it was largely ignored. Had it not been, sites such as Tertre Lane would have been picked up on.’

The main problem with the proposed development there was the density of housing.

‘Seventeen is far too many to squash on to a small site and I’m not convinced that eight houses with reasonable living space can fit, but then no actual plans have been produced. The devil will be in the detail.’

Mr Leale repeated his concerns that this level of development would impact on the parish schools. ‘Assuming that most of these houses are intended for families, then the primary schools will undoubtedly struggle to cope,’ he said – fears shared by some of the parish deputies.

Traffic at certain times of day was also a problem in many areas and he hoped a traffic impact assessment would be undertaken as part of the development brief in terms of the number of houses allowed. 

• The Vale parish is liaising with St Sampson’s on its concerns about development.
• Any parishioners with similar fears are asked to contact the office or leave comments on our FaceBook page.