Cannabis farm? Vinery application gets green light

Wednesday 06 November 2019

Security fencing, gates, lighting and CCTV have been approved at a Vale vinery, which could become the island’s first cannabis farm.

Although the planning approval for La Hougue Vinery in Rue des Landes, Vale, does not specify what the glasshouses will be used for, it says the site’s owners will need a license from HSC for the crops they want to produce.

Residents have previously voiced concerns about what the vinery could be used for, with 14 homeowners making representations against the planning application, but to no avail.

Planning said the plans for the vinery had been designed to have minimal impact on people who live nearby. 

"The proposed gates will be situated 52m distance from the public highway and will span the opening between an existing glasshouse and the boundary shared with the neighbouring property to the south," they said. "An additional gate will be positioned at right angles to provide access into the adjacent field, which is also owned and controlled by the applicant. The security fence will comprise a 2.4m high chain link fence which will be coloured black and will be positioned well within the site and away from any road frontage. 

"Security cameras are proposed to be installed which will be positioned at the entrance point into the site, at each corner of the glasshouse along the western boundary of the site and one towards the northern boundary of the site."

Full details are yet to be submitted for some feature, including the lighting, and these will require additional sign-off from planning and environmental health authorities once they have been prepared. 

Pictured: La Hougue Vinery is next to a residential property in a small Vale lane. The residential garden pictured is not linked to the vinery site, marked by the greenhouses, to the rear of the image. 

The application also had to be deferred because of the absence of information about how the site will be used, the proposed lighting to be installed, the potential intensification of traffic visiting the site and its hours of operation. 

Although there has been speculation about the growth of medicinal cannabis, Planning's comments raise the possibility of the site being used for more traditional horticulture. 

"Regarding concerns expressed by representors about the horticultural operation proposed and that this constitutes a change of use, following deferral of the application, the applicant’s agent has confirmed that the use of the site will be horticultural comprising the growing of plants from seeds and picking and packing them for collection by van twice per year and that no processing will happen at the vinery."

"The additional information confirms that three staff will be employed at the site so in essence three cars will arrive in the morning and leave at the end of the day. In addition, two vans will come to the site twice per year to collect the produce. The general hours of operation will be between 07:30 to 18:00 daily. There is no evidence therefore to suggest that the proposed ancillary works would give rise to any intensification of traffic or use compared with that normally associated with a working vinery of this scale.

The approval notice went on to say: "The proposed production at the site would be subject of licensing from the Committee for Health & Social Care and would be subject to normal pollution control measures operating under other statutory regimes."

Pictured top: La Hougue Vinery before works begin.