THE controversial decision to build homes on the Goose Green site would not have been taken if the States had been in possession of all the facts, an official report has concluded.
A committee of inquiry has concluded that the States might not have elected to rezone the site had they been given all necessary information in July 2002. And it says that plans to keep parishioners informed were ‘hopelessly
inadequate’.
The decision to agree to a housing scheme at Goose Green – areas which are prone to flooding – was taken by Environment Minister Freddie Cohen. A critic of the scheme, St Lawrence Constable Geoffrey Fisher, proposed that the committee be set up to look into the way the 102 houses were approved in March last year despite only 97 homes being recommended in the 2002 Island Plan.
The three-man panel spent two days interviewing a number of people, including Mr Fisher, Environment Minister Freddie Cohen, Planning director Peter Thorne and officers from Environmental Health. The report, which was released on Friday, states that the attempt to keep parishioners informed ‘backfired seriously’ and that the Planning application process ‘was not acceptable’.
