Five houses approved at Cobo

Thursday 02 November 2023

Planners have given the nod to an application for five new homes, landscaping, and parking, on a plot just off the Cobo seafront.

The site on Bouverie Lane currently hosts one property, Dove Cottage, but that can now be demolished to create five three-bedroom homes in accordance with a scheme brought forward by Mr & Mrs Nussbaumer.

They are proposed to be of a 1½ storey buildings with dormer windows and would be finished with smooth rendered and ship lap clad walls, aluminium fenestration, and slate roofs. 

Each unit would have a garden, parking spaces, electric car charging points, and solar panels. Main access to the site is from Route de Cobo.

A similar application was refused in June 2022, but the scheme has since been revised. 

In approving the application, planners attached 15 conditions. These include final details on flood defence measures, ensuring an adjoining footpath is accessible and gives priority to pedestrians, an agreed landscaping scheme, and confirmation over certain fittings. 

Pictured: Vehicle access to the site will be widened to improve flow and visibility.

Four objections to the development of the site, which falls within the Cobo Local Centre, were sent in focusing on the loss of open space, impact on wildlife and neighbouring properties, road safety, and water run-off concerns. 

A development framework for the site was approved by planners in 2019, which said that up to seven houses could be built on the 0.3 hectare plot.

They said “development proposals should consider a multi-storey design from the outset.

“Any proposal must, however, consider potential impacts in views from the Cobo coast road and long views from the Le Guet.”

It was also noted that around 85% of the site is in a flood risk area and any development should lay out mitigations to those risks. 

Guernsey Water had “no comment to make” on coastal flooding in the consultation period, while Traffic & Highways said the plans do not give rise to traffic management or road safety concerns.

The planning decision notice states: “To address the potential flood risk the agent advises that the dwellings will be raised by 250mm above the surrounding ground level and flood mitigation measures will be incorporated including SUDs surfacing, storm drains, the erection of low walls along the west and north boundaries, the installation of a flood barrier to the south main entrance and dwellings will include flood doors and windows."

You can read the planners’ decision HERE.