Businessman Roger Le Maistre, an owner of the Creepy Valley Adventure Centre, had applied to put two tracks and five portable cabins on two former agricultural fields in Rue de Sorel. However, politicians on the committee rejected the scheme, saying that the green zone site and character of the surrounding natural environment needed to be protected.
The Planning Department had also said it should be turned down.
The formal discussion of the plans followed a public demonstration of the leisure vehicles and a parish meeting at which concerns about noise, extra traffic and harm to the environment were expressed by St John parishioners.
Those same concerns were outlined again at Thursday’s Planning meeting when seven Islanders objected to the plans, which senior planner Jonathan Gladwin said had attracted 67 formal letters of objection and 29 letters of support.
Mr Le Maistre defended the scheme, telling the committee: ‘The land is flat and drains well and it has very good natural screening.
‘It is remote from domestic properties and is accessed by a main road.
‘And the area is synonymous with motorsport.’
However, the plans, which had gained support from Visit Jersey chief executive Keith Beecham, were rejected by the committee, comprising vice-chairman Constable Philip Le Sueur, and Deputies Russell Labey, Jeremy Maçon and Graham Truscott.
After the meeting Mr Le Maistre said: ‘We will go back and have a look at the 30 sites we’ve already looked at and hopefully some new sites will be coming up that we can investigate.
‘This activity is too important just to let go.
‘This was a good site, but we will just have to move on to continue the process.’
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.
PLANNERS have to tread a delicate balance between protecting the natural environment and enabling businesses to grow and develop.
Jersey bears many scars of when those in charge got it wrong. The Island’s coastline, the jewel in its crown, is pockmarked with buildings which should never have been built. Just why some of these structures were approved remains clouded in mystery, but it seems clear that money has had a habit of talking louder than concerns about a few green fields and unspoilt cliff tops.
And then there was Plémont and the question of whether the States should use public money to buy the former Pontins holiday village and return it to nature. The issue divided the Island, but made it abundantly clear that a very sizeable group of people felt very strongly about the protection of Jersey’s natural environment.
In fact, that sentiment was equally strong among many who opposed plans to buy the land. Very often their objections were rooted in other concerns, including a dislike of compulsory purchase and spending priorities.
Time and again, Islanders have been asked what they value about Jersey and the answer has consistently come back as the environment.
With the National Trust’s project to return the Plémont headland to a natural state nearing completion, the north coast stands as a reminder of how breathtakingly wild and beautiful Jersey remains, despite an ever increasing population and government economic growth policies.
So what should the decision be on plans to create an off-road buggy track near Sorel Point?
With the motocross track at Belle Hougue, the firing ranges at Crabbé and Devil’s Hole and the bike and go-kart tracks at Sorel, is it not time to call a halt on the noise?
Planning officers certainly think so and they are right.
They have recommended that plans for the track submitted by Roger Le Maistre, the man behind the excellent Creepy Valley Adventure Centre, are rejected.
A report drafted by planning officers stresses that part of the proposed development is in the heavily protected Green Zone and would cause ‘serious harm’ to the landscape. It adds that the venture would increase noise and disturbance in the area.
But would these negatives be outweighed by the economic benefit and an uplift in tourism?
It seems unlikely.
