Seale Street cut for sale at ‘giveaway’ price

Seale Street cut for sale at ‘giveaway’ price

But the small lane between Sand Street and Seale Street was not let go lightly by some parishioners who said that to sell it for just £80,000 was ‘a giveaway’.What turned out to be quite a confusing meeting for the 33 present, started with them being asked to approve a recommendation by the Procureurs du Bien Public and the Constable that the cutting, of 728 sq ft, should be sold to the owner of an adjacent property.Deputy Jacqui Huet said she had seen advertisement for a similar site, of 650 sq ft, with a planning permit for a single two-storey unit, being sold for £85,000.’There must be something wrong when we are being asked to sell a prime site capable of conversion into four units for just £80,000,’she said.Town surveyor Peter Noble said there were constraints on the land as it was in a conservation zone, sewers and mains were under the road and, as it could not be built on as a separate site, was only of interest to the two owners of properties either side.The parish was also seeking to restrict use of Seale Street to large vehicles which were currently abusing the area, he said.Procureur Clive Barton said the buyer’s first offer for the cutting had been considerably less than £80,000, an offer which had been rejected by the parish, before the current sum, arrived at by valuers, was negotiated.Confusion followed when it appeared there were those who believed properties on either side of the cutting were owned by the same person while others said that was not the case.Clarification only came when George Louis, from CGR Properties Ltd, the company seeking to buy the cutting, said they only owned the side which included Troy’s Estate Agency, Big J Takeaway and Café Sombrero.He spoke of the conservation restrictions on the site and said the company were hoping to make the entrance to the estate agency, currently opening onto the cutting, more safe for customers.They were also hoping to create parking facilities and possibly al fresco eating for the nearby café , with a possible long term interest in considering the development potential.Guy Le Maistre said the premises alongside the cutting had two floors in the form of an apex making it up to three floors at the least.To sell the cutting with this potential for just £80,000 would be a giveaway, he suggested.Roads committee members Iain MacFirbhisigh and Peter Pearce complained they had not been consulted about the final phases of the negotiations.They had originally been the committee considering the application, but aware that a true valuation was needed, had passed it to the Procureurs to have that carried out.’We expected the information to be passed back to us as it is the roads committee who are responsible for parish sales and extinguishment of roads proceedings,’ Mr Pearce said, calling for a vote to refer the whole matter back to them.That proposition was seconded by Mr MacFirbhisigh, but the vote for a reference back was defeated by 15 votes to six.A subsequent vote for the proposition was passed by 13 votes to nine.After the meeting, the Constable Simon Crowcroft said he would have deferred the issue had he known before the meeting of the concern of the roads committee.Asked after the meeting about the company’s main intention for the site, Mr Louis said that at present they definitely intended pressing ahead with parking and al fresco plans, subject to approval.On the question of developing the site, he said ‘long-term, maybe’.The meeting passed by 19 votes for and none against, with little comment, an application to sell for £15,000 a section of land in Old St Andrew’s Road, extinguished years ago as an unacceptably dangerous exit, for use as open space/and, or parking.

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