Concerns over 'Cobo Alice field' as development rises

Tuesday 16 April 2019

A large new house being built on the Cobo coast road has raised a few eyebrows, both with some members of the public and some Deputies who are surprised by the size of the new dwelling.

The property is being built on the corner near the filter at the junction of the Cobo coast road and Route de Cobo. It replaces a smaller house which was there before.

Mr and Mrs P Annegarn bought the property just over a year ago and secured planning permission last summer to knock it down and to replace it with a larger dwelling. 

That work has now started with a timber frame being built suggesting the new property will loom large over its nearest neighbours.

Among the politicians first to express their surprise over the size of the development was Deputy Andrea Dudley Owen who asked via Twitter, how it could be allowed to be built.

Wow.. seriously!? How? This is massive. I understand now why the Cobo Alice field was needed .. such a large dwelling needs a very large garden! IDP seems to works better for some than others pic.twitter.com/Mf2TwoX27f

— Andrea D-O (@PourchetRouge) April 11, 2019

Describing it as the 'Cobo Alice field' Deputy Dudley Owen referenced the portion of land which lies parallel to the coast road, which used to be used as a public walk way. That right of access has now been lost as part of the redevelopment of the property. 

Deputy Dudley Owen suggested that she, and other politicians, had wrongly thought the field had been protected from the redevelopment through an amendment approved during the States debate on the Island Development Plan in 2016.

Very disappointed, I thought we'd protected the "Cobo Alice" field from the threat of development.

— Chris Green (@deputycgreen) April 12, 2019

Responding to Castel Deputy Chris Green, who said he was 'very disappointed', Deputy Dudley Owen said she had voted for that amendment and others for that very reason.

"I feel let down and actually that we were mislead at the time into believing that we had protected these areas of land."

The DPA President, Deputy John Gollop, has also spoken out to express his concern, saying that it was a mistake in hindsight not to take the decision on this development to an open planning meeting so members of the public could comment.

"After rejecting the first plan iteration I recall we at DPA delegated the decision under policy to staff team. We didn’t hold an OPM because we understood revised plans more appropriate within policy. A mistake of process in hindsight," he tweeted.

Not everyone is upset at the scale of the new build though, with some members of the public supporting it and saying they 'can't wait to see what it looks like'.

I doesn’t look any taller than the house across the road from it which is also quite a large building. I’m sure it will stand out for the first few years but everyone will get used to it in the end. pic.twitter.com/Rsna1Cgbw7

— jviddy (@jviddy) April 12, 2019

The 'Cobo Alice field' was known as that because of a small decorative boat which used to sit in the field with that name. Cobo Alice is the name of a doll linked with the area historically.