North of island needs a national park, says deputy

Deputy John Gollop, a former president of the Development and Planning Authority, made the surprise call during a planning inquiry being held to assess the impact of relaxing the island development plan (IDP) in order to focus on housing land supply, housing delivery and employment land supply.

He asked the inquiry to consider "national park" designation to part of the south-east of St Sampson's, starting at Belle Greve Bay, pictured above, to provide some balance to the hundreds of new homes earmarked for the Vale and its neighbouring parish.

This followed others highlighting the need to preserve the environment in the north of the island and allow areas of biodiversity to thrive in the area.

Throwaway
Deputy Gollop's suggestion is unlikely to get far, however, as the independent planning inspector, Keith Holland, described it as "quite some throwaway comment" and Simon Whyte, the States' principle planning officer, said it was "probably a bit beyond the current policies and approaches" in the IDP.

Elsewhere in the planning inquiry, as reported by the Guernsey Press, traffic dominated, along with concerns about the volume of new homes proposed for the Vale especially and also St Sampson's.

Planners said that traffic impact assessments would be carried out for all the sites being considered.

• It's not yet known when the planning inquiry will report its final findings.