Politicians insist they are not dodging open planning meetings

Friday 04 February 2022

The Development & Planning Authority says it is not deliberately making more decisions behind closed doors or delegating more to officials after two high profile applications were resolved by staff in private without going to open planning meetings.

The multi-million pound redevelopment of La Grande Mare Hotel into a luxury golf resort with guest lodges and the conversion of the former Auberge restaurant from commercial to residential use were recently approved by the Authority without being heard at open planning meetings.

Open planning meetings are held in public. Anyone attending can hear the advice of States' officials on the application under consideration and elected members of the Development & Planning Authority can ask questions of the advice. Members of the public can make verbal representations on the application. While still in public session, members of the Authority then deliberate and resolve the application.

The island's planning laws provide the States with discretion about which applications should go to open planning meetings and the States' Assembly have not issued detailed directions to the Authority about the circumstances of an application which should trigger an open planning meeting. 

Express understands that it has become accepted practice for applications to be resolved by elected members of the Authority only at open planning meetings and for all other applications to be determined by officials acting under authority delegated to them by the elected members. 

This means that any trend towards holding fewer open planning meetings results in more applications being determined by officials and fewer by elected members as well as more applications being resolved behind closed doors. 

Pictured: Applications to redevelop La Grande Mare Hotel site (left) and to change the former Auberge restaurant site into residential use were recently approved without open planning meetings.  

Express spoke to members of the Authority to understand why the recent high profile applications were not referred to open planning meetings and to ask whether this reflected a shift in approach away from using open planning meetings generally.

Deputy Victoria Oliver, President of the Authority, said that one member of the Authority did propose setting up an open planning meeting to hear the application for change of use at the Auberge site, but "by majority, it was agreed to go to delegated authority".

This means that a majority of the elected members of the Authority voted against holding an open planning meeting and instead asked their officials to decide whether to approve the application.

Deputy Oliver was open with Express about her vote. "I will say that I voted for [the Auberge] to go to an open planning meeting," she said. But Deputy Oliver was outvoted on that proposal by a majority of the Authority.

Express understands that Deputies Oliver and Bob Murray voted in favour of holding an open planning meeting while Deputies Andrew Taylor, John Dyke and Sasha Kazantseva-Miller voted against.

The Vice-President of the Authority, Deputy Taylor, said the Auberge application was initially noted as appropriate for an open planning meeting but that a majority of the Authority ultimately decided that an open planning meeting was unnecessary. 

“The simplest answer is that the [Authority] decided against it," said Deputy Taylor.

“The application was quite different to what I initially thought. And on reflection I decided to allow the proposals to go under delegated authority."

Deputy Taylor acknowledged that “within the committee there are different views".

The application proposed connecting the site of the former restaurant to an adjacent residential property. The two sites are owned by the same person. 

Pictured: The Development & Planning Authority resolves all commercial and residential planning applications. The Authority says it has not changed its approach on referring applications to open planning meetings 

Asked whether the Authority intends to hold fewer open planning meetings, Deputy Oliver said: “No, not at all. It's always been voted on in the committee to see if the committee have the appetite to go for it.”

She said there had not been a significant change in the number or frequency of open planning meetings, albeit there had been a slight difference because of restraints brought about by the covid-19 pandemic.

“I am very keen on open planning meetings because there’s a greater level of transparency and openness to the public," said Deputy Oliver.

"But then the other side is that many people do not have general planning experience."

Pictured: Guernsey's most senior politician, Deputy Peter Ferbrache, who also has experience of appearing at open planning meetings as an Advocate for applicants, said last year: "The planning team is now looking at ways that they can fast-track the planning process [and] remove unnecessary, costly steps – including changes in policy. This willingness to support is a good start, but it must be a consistent theme in Guernsey in 2021 and beyond. We want planning to support the economy."

Deputy Taylor said there had been no change in policies on when to refer applications to open planning meetings. But he said that sometimes it is more practical to allow applications to be resolved without hearing them in public.

Asked about the application for La Grande Mare not going to an open planning meeting, Deputy Taylor said: “It saves time and work which would otherwise deter from work on other open planning meetings.

“It's largely based on timescales. It is a quicker process through delegated authority. And a majority view supported this.”

Deputy Taylor also said the Authority should avoid publicly announcing the possibility of any particular application being referred "as it creates an expectation in the public for a decision for an open planning meeting".