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The consolidated five-yearly review of the Island Development Plan, which was paused at the height of the covid-19 pandemic, has now been scrapped by the Development & Planning Authority.
The Island Development Plan, which has regulated all development and land planning in Guernsey since 2016, was originally going to have a consolidated review in 2020 and 2021, at the mid-point of its intended 10-year lifespan.
That mid-point review was to include a States' debate in 2020 on the terms of the review and another States' debate in 2021 on any possible changes to the Plan following a planning inquiry. That timetable was paused by the States in April 2020 as the island focused on responding to covid-19.
The Development & Planning Authority told a scrutiny hearing yesterday that it had dropped the idea of a consolidated mid-point review with a two-stage States' debate and a planning inquiry.
The Authority said it was instead carrying out a series of smaller, discrete reviews of specific aspects of the Island Development Plan.
Pictured: In reply to questions from Shane Langlois, Deputy Victoria Oliver said that the Development & Planning Authority had dropped the idea of a major, consolidated mid-point review of the Island Development Plan.
Shane Langlois, a member of the Scrutiny Management Committee's panel for the hearing, asked the Authority whether it was now carrying out the consolidated five-yearly review which had been paused.
"No, we're not," said the Authority's President, Deputy Victoria Oliver. "We’ve picked out various policies which we thought needed addressing which the five-yearly review would have picked out…effectively, we’re doing a five-yearly review in a roundabout way.
"It will be done in steps rather than as one big parcel…one big parcel makes it more difficult to properly understand whereas, if you do individual reviews, it will be easier."
Claire Barrett, a senior advisor of the Authority, told the scrutiny hearing: "Technically, there is not a five-yearly review because it has been subsumed into the full review."
The Authority also said that this "full review", which is the first step towards replacing the Island Development Plan at the end of its 10-year lifespan, would be brought forward to allow it to be handled by the current States' Assembly before its term ends in June 2025.
Pictured: Deputies Yvonne Burford and Simon Fairclough were surprised when the Scrutiny Management Committee was told yesterday that the consolidated mid-point review of the Island Development Plan had now been scrapped rather than paused.
Simon Fairclough, the Vice President of the Scrutiny Management Committee, was surprised to hear that the paused consolidated review was not going ahead.
"This is the first I've heard of it," said Deputy Fairclough. He asked the Authority: "Do you think the fact there isn’t going to be a five-yearly review per se is understood by deputies and the wider community?"
In reply, Deputy Oliver said: "I think it will become known more once the Government Work Plan is debated [in June this year]."
At the time when the five-yearly review was paused, the predecessor Authority in the previous States' term said: "Whilst we believe that this is in the best interests of the community at this difficult time, all the feedback we have had and the promises made as to the content of the review of the Island Development Plan will not be lost. It is just being rescheduled to a time when it can do the most good in helping reinvigorate Guernsey's economy."
Deputy Oliver told yesterday's hearing that the Authority had already looked again or would soon look again at almost all elements of the Island Development Plan which its predecessor Authority had originally identified for inclusion in the five-yearly review before it was paused.
Pictured: At yesterday's hearing hosted by the Scrutiny Management Committee, the representatives of the Development & Planning Authority were (left to right): Jim Rowles, Director of Planning; Deputy Victoria Oliver, President; Deputy Andrew Taylor, Vice President; and Claire Barrett, Policy & Environment Manager.
Deputy Yvonne Burford, the President of the Scrutiny Management Committee, asked the Authority whether it might propose "substantial changes to the Island Development Plan" ahead of debates in a few years' time following the "full review" referred to by Ms Barrett and required by law.
"There might be some things which come forward, but nothing within the next year," said Deputy Oliver.
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