It was the Planning Department which took the proposition to the States in 2008 when the then Housing Minister Terry Le Main said there was an essential and urgent need for affordable retirement homes, which were not specifically for individual parishes.
Senator Cohen said: ‘The rezoning was not a mistake, but I am questioning whether the need was that urgent. On reflection, it may have been better to have taken the political flak for non-delivery of these homes for the elderly and incorporated them in the Island Plan instead.’
However, Senator Le Main has defended his own role in pushing successfully for the States to rezone that land in seven parishes, and said he is surprised about the Planning Minister’s comments.
