Planners reject proposals for house on vinery

Monday 22 March 2021

A controversial application to demolish glasshouses on a St Pierre du Bois vinery and convert a packing shed into a house has been refused by planners.

The landowners of a vinery in Rue des Mares, Mr and Mrs M Watt, wanted to clear the site and turn the packing shed/boiler house into a two-bedroom property with parking and a garden.

It would have led to the demolition and clearance of all of the glasshouses on the 1.2 hectare site. However, the application, which echoed a similar proposal by the landowners in 2019, was turned down by the Planning Department.

"The application site is located within an Agriculture Priority Area and appears capable of contributing to the commercial agricultural use of that area with no adverse environmental impacts," said a spokesman for Planning.

"Once cleared, the application site would clearly contribute positively to the wider area of open land within which it is located. For these reasons the application is contrary to the clear aims and objectives of Policy OC7.

Pictured: The site the application relates to, as set out on the States of Guernsey Planning website. 

The St Pierre du Bois Douzaine and La Societe were among 13 groups and individuals who objected to the plans. One of the main complaints was that the plans were essentially a resubmission of the 2019 application, which was also rejected, and should not be entertained.

Others argued that it was prime horticultural land with fairly new glasshouses sited on it, some of which have been in use up until recently for the production of raspberries and strawberries.

The landowners sought to provide some context to those concerns, saying the glasshouses had fallen out of commercial use more than a decade ago.

"We have owned the site since 1989 and made our livelihood in the growing industry, which had declined into the mid to late 2000’s," said the applicants.

"About three years ago we hired someone to be on site to maintain the site and keep the site safe and clear of overgrowth. In return, that single person wanted to use an area to grow some fruit, so we allowed him to use a couple of glasshouse areas in exchange for clearing it and a bit of maintenance owing to the overgrown conditions.

"Many of the glasshouses are damaged and not safe"

"This was for a small area for about 18 months. Prior to that the site had been unused for approximately 10 years since about 2008. We last spoke to the tenant in Jan/Feb 2018. Later he was nowhere to be found and we later found out that he had left Guernsey in early 2018. We have never seen or heard from him again. He did not even pick some of the fruit he had planted. He only used part of the vinery and the growing was not on a commercial scale.

They continued: "Many of the glasshouses are damaged and not safe for human entrance/uses. In summary, the growing of fruit was minimal, not a commercial scale and for a short term as part consideration to maintain our site which has been falling into a worse condition since the uses ceased in 2008."

Their appeals were dismissed by planners, who said the site was prime for agricultural use. For this reason, they refused to sanction plans for a change of use.