Vale Church car park improvements approved

Flashback to April 2018: A warning sign next to a vehicle in the Vale Church car park which police said they would remove unless the owner did so. (Picture courtesy of Guernsey Police)

Improvements to the Vale Church car park have been approved by planners after the Vale Douzaine supported the application.

The Constables and Douzaine noted that the car park has been regularly abused – see picture above – with abandoned cars and vans over a great number of years. It was also being used by people who did not live in the area to park commercial vehicles.

'The proposals are, to the Douzaine’s mind, a sensible approach to the problems mentioned above and they urge approval of the application,' the official planning approval notice said.

The decision brings to an end a long-running problem for the Church authorities and the Vale Commons Council caused, in part, over a dispute about who owned the land used for car parking.

In the end, the proposed work was a joint application between States Traffic & Highway Services and the Vale Commons Council. The application was amended during the course of consideration because originally, the council said it was the owner of the site.

'This has subsequently been amended to confirm that the applicant has made all reasonable enquiries to identify the owner and obtain consent,' said Planning director Jim Rowles.

• Because the site is located within an area of known archaeological importance, the States Archaeologist will need to be granted access to it.