Roger Le Maistre, a director of Creepy Valley Adventure Centre, has submitted plans to create a buggy track on two fields near Sorel Point on the north coast.
The plans have been criticised by many residents, and the majority of parishioners who attended a public meeting at St John’s Parish Hall last week spoke out against the proposals.
The application, which has been backed by Visit Jersey and the CI Travel Group, among other organisations, has now been recommended for refusal in a planning officer’s report.
The Planning Applications Committee are due to make a decision on the scheme at Thursday’s planning meeting.
The report states that the buggy track would create ‘serious harm’ to the landscape’s character and that the venture would ‘increase noise and disturbance’ in the area.
It also raises concerns about the loss of the fields to agriculture.
Mr Le Maistre, who would receive £49,000 from the Tourism Development Fund if the plans were given the go-ahead, has said that the Sorel point site is the ‘by far the best’ and that the creation of the buggy track was in the Island’s interests.
He added that he understood residents’ concerns, particularly about noise, and said that the plans that had been submitted involved the use of buggies with ‘super-silent engines’.
Mr Le Maistre said: ‘I always knew we would get some objectors.
‘Noise was always a concern, and we have tailored our plans and the type of buggies for that.
‘Environmental Health have passed it for noise, so I don’t believe it is the primary issue.
‘I think the main issue is that some of the residents do not want another activity at Sorel.
‘We are being grouped together with activities that are already there.
‘Even the parish Constable has said that the idea for the buggy centre is brilliant – he just doesn’t want it in his parish.
‘It is very important that we have the views of the residents, but it is important for the Island to have an activity like this, which would be good for tourism, education and young people.’
As part of the plans, the tracks would be marked out using tyres and straw bales, and temporary cabins would be used as an office space and buggy storage at the site.
Mr Le Maistre added: ‘We have plans to provide some buggies to schools so that they can build them and then maybe take them onto the track.
‘We have also been looking into a corporate package, whereby teams would be split into various roles to a build a buggy and run it around the course and the team would go onto a Top Gear-style leaderboard on our website.
‘There have already been inter-island companies asking to bring over their counterparts from Guernsey.
‘It could be very exciting.’
Here’s how you responded on the JEP Facebook page last month:
Andy Jay: At least these plans aren’t trying to take away access to a coastal viewpoint like the kart club wanted to! I’m all in favour of anything that gives people more to do, so this gets a thumbs up from me. Only NIMBYs would vote against this, surely?
Philip Johnson: Great idea! Investment in tourism and leisure that is much needed. A pity its using portacabins for the reception, a granite cottage style building would be better.
Melanie Luce: I’d like to see a full kart track with offroad alongside in one motorsport centre. The States still have to fulfil their promise to replace the track they took for housing twenty years ago
Loraine Stewart Scott: Actually, the NIMBYs are all the people who DON’T live in this area! Be warned everyone, if these plans get passed, it means that anyone could potentially set up a COMMERCIAL activity, running all day, every day, right near YOU!
Sarah Waymouth: What a waste of land and money, why do we want one? People who want that type of sport can go to UK or France, far more fun and speed
Tracy Vibert: Yes , if it’s managed properly and it gives employment to local firms and people, we have to move with the times it’s the not on our patch attitude that stops the island from progressing
Graeme Butcher: I am extremely concerned if this get the go ahead. Yes I do live in St John but nowhere near this, I live close to the church, and yet we can hear the scramblers when they are in action we also can hear the Go Karts when they are in action.
Paul Smith: Great idea. Four stroke buggies can be/are very quiet and with the right noise abatement and land management measures as proposed the environmental impact will be minimal.
Paul J Bentley: Great idea. We need facilities. Four strokes and electric karts will produce very low levels of noise. A lot less than cars passing people’s houses routinely.
John Renouf: I think that this a a very bad scheme,it destroys good,early,productive agricultural land and impacts badly on the environment.
Tracy Vibert: Great news something for the locals and the tourists alike move with the times jobs revenue.
