Douzeniers want developments that benefit northern parishes

Tuesday 18 August 2020

Vale constables have called for action on developments that better serve the needs of the northern parishes, following a meeting with the D&PA.

Douzeniers Richard Leale and Richard Digard held the meeting earlier this week after the parish had called for a ‘holistic’ approach to traffic impact assessments in the area, as 'site-by-site' assessments failed to account for the wide scope of proposed developments.

D&PA President Dawn Tindall said that work has begun on collating all the completed traffic assessments for the area, including for the two school sites, and creating a 'living document' to inform any future developments.

While Vale Senior Constable Mr Leale was reassured by this, he still had concerns about the nature of developments in the North of the Island.

Deputy Tindall explained in the meeting that D&PA intends to create and enforce policy, not to push for any specific plans. As such, unless the States had an interest in a particular project, it was up to commercial developers to decide what projects would go ahead.

Pictured: D&PA president Dawn Tindall said that Planning's role is to give prospective developers options, rather than push for any particular projects over others.

Mr Leale felt that this meant projects that were "easier" or more appealing to developers would rise to the top, leaving projects such as Leale's Yard, with "much wider benefits," to stall and flounder.

"Deputy Tindall made the case quite strongly that Planning are not developers, they're in some respects enablers," said Mr Leale. "I don't mean this as a criticism of Deputy Tindall, but it's not what most of our parishioners would understand by the term 'planning'."

Deputy Tindall said she believed the current States' Assembly had little interest in supporting the Leale's Yard development, and that it would take the intervention of a 'philanthropist or wealthy donor' to see the project move more swiftly.

Mr Leale had hoped that more could be done to encourage developments of significant public interest, but left the meeting feeling that it was "unfortunately going to be up to the new States when they're elected in October,"

"In that respect, one could say it's too late."

Pictured top: The long-awaited Leale's Yard regeneration project was discussed in a recent meeting between Vale Douzeniers and the D&PA. Douzeniers feared that projects with significant benefit to the north of the island were being 'sidelined.'