We need a start date for Leale's Yard building, say Constables

And that was any indication of when building might start or when the first new homes would be available for islanders to move into.

Senior Constable John Niles said he and the douzaine welcomed the recent update (available here) about old buildings being cleared starting in September, but the release raised more questions than it answered.

"We're not being critical, but what's long been recognised as a vital regeneration project for the north of the island now seems further away under States ownership than when the Coop and developers Omnibus were running it," he said.

"Who converts this derelict site into new homes, offices and retail opportunities is of less interest to the douzaine, the parish and islanders generally than when this essential regeneration actually starts," said Mr Niles.

Looking at the recent press release from Policy and Resources, which said that experts in master planning were to be appointed to help set out a scheme for Leale's Yard and the overall site layout, plus community spaces and transport links, suggested the whole project was going back to square one.

"We hope that there will be early and full consultation with the douzaine on what P&R has in mind with this new phase of the on-off development of Leale's Yard," said Mr Niles, "but if government is really going back to basics on this it suggests that years of previous  consultation, design and and planning permissions will simply be written off.

"There has been extensive parish involvement in what we thought was going to be built there under the Coop/Omnibus proposals and, while they may not have been perfect, they were a huge improvement on what's there now and would have benefitted the community.

"Now, unless we hear to the contrary, all that work appears to have been wasted and imminent house building pushed back to, well, who knows when?"

Mr Niles also questioned the apparent use of consultants for the planning work when the States said the use of external experts had been stopped and asked why the cost of this hadn't been published. 

• Under the previous plans advanced by Omnibus, the site would have been demolished by now, and the developers planned to have completed the new infrastructure and been building new light gauge steel frame homes, delivering them before the end of 2027.