THE former coach depot and electrical store at La Colomberie will be demolished and replaced with 29 apartments, one office and a shop, after planning permission was granted yesterday.
The Planning Committee – a group of politicians who decide larger and more contentious applications – unanimously gave permission for the development, which kinks round from La Colomberie to Roseville Street, where there will be access to a 14-space ground-floor car park.
However, the committee did raise its concern about a lack of strategic direction – which comes from the Environment Minister – over the preferred mix of homes in developments it considers.
Committee chair, Constable Philip Le Sueur, said: “We have to consider each application in isolation against the policies of the Bridging Island Plan but not against any strategic objective from the minister.
“There is a widely held view that the market is saturated with flats and we are seeing massive reduction in values, which is driven by over-supply. This creates a problem in that people living in one- and two-bedroom flats have nowhere to move to; they are stuck.
“It is in the minister’s gift to tell us what should be being built in an Island where land is a finite resource. Perhaps, we need to learn more from our Continental cousins about quality apartment living.”
The approved scheme in La Colomberie – which used to be YESSS Electrical before the business moved to Five Oaks around three years ago – will comprise 14 one-bedroom and 15-two bedroom flats, one 192 m2 office and one 62 m2 retail unit.
There are various obligations and conditions attached to the approval, including the applicant funding the building of a bus shelter in La Colomberie, widening the pavements in La Colomberie and Roseville Street, and contributing to ‘play space provision’ in the nearby Howard Davis Park.
