Town plans: “Once developers come forward, it will snowball”

Thursday 09 December 2021

The President of the Development & Planning Authority is optimistic for the future of Town and hopes ambitious proposals published today pave the way for development and regeneration to start soon.

The D&PA's St. Peter Port Regeneration Development Framework follows extensive work undertaken by Tibbalds, a London-based urban design firm. It focuses on three main regeneration areas: the Lower Pollet; South Esplanade and Mignot Plateua; and Mansell Street and Le Bordage.

“Originally there were going to be three separate Frameworks, but we thought it would be much more cost-effective to include all three together, and the Development Framework came about because those areas were the areas most in need of regeneration,” said Deputy Victoria Oliver.

She hopes that other States' committees, private developers and others will use her Authority's document as a platform to develop large parts of Town and regenerate those areas which need it. 

“Once you have one developer come forward, others will also come, so it’s almost a snowball effect. We have a number of pre-applications in the pipeline and we’re hopeful these will result in a planning application.”

Pictured: Deputy Oliver said that the D&PA's consultation partner, Tibbalds, "were the main people driving this - they looked at other areas within other jurisdictions to see what worked well".

The D&PA's Development Framework emphasises the advantages of making Town more pedestrian-friendly and creating more public open spaces. 

“We haven’t finalized everything but that is what I foresee,” said Deputy Oliver. 

She said some of the feedback received on an earlier draft version of the document led to the D&PA including more “radical” ideas in the final Development Framework, including putting a tunnel under the South Esplanade to reduce traffic congestion, improve experiences for pedestrians and make better use of public spaces.

“That was just one of the ones they [Tibbalds] decided to pick. It was also suggested by the Committee for Economic Development that the document wasn’t radical enough, so that’s why we put that in there - to meet their requirements.”

Pictured: The Development Framework focused on optimising several ‘gateways’ into the Town centre.

The D&PA presented the Development Framework to other States' members yesterday. She said it received mixed feedback from them. 

“Some of them were really excited by it and looking to make sure the future was catered for. I think other people were concerned about parking - that there needed to be more parking and that would sort everything out. Others were quite pragmatic about it.”

You can read the full Development Framework ONLINE HERE.