Portelet Hotel Limited wants to pull down an existing two-storey granite farmhouse and outbuildings on a site off Rue Voisin in St Brelade and to replace them with a two-storey, pitched-roof house with a total floor area of 567 square metres.
The site is bordered to the two sides by 11 vergées of land, that reaches across fields, behind the Portelet Inn, to Route de Noirmont.
Portelet Hotel Limited’s agent for the application, MS Planning Limited, says the proposed house, which will incorporate the granite from the original farmhouse, will use energy efficient green technology including air source heating pumps, high-performance glazing and insulation as well as rain water storage tanks for irrigating the gardens and orchard.
Under the plans the old boundary walls would be replaced which would create boundaries to the surrounding fields.
‘The proposal involves the retention of a number of stone walls requiring restoration by removal of ivy and minor making good works where necessary,’ MS Planning explains in the application’s design statement. ‘Those that are dilapidated along the east side of the site have potential for harbouring wildlife. All existing walls offer a refuge for insects, mammals and small invertebrates.’
If the plans are approved, land to the south will be planted to create an orchard, while the other fields will remain in agricultural use and local hedging species will be planted to provide a nature screen for the new house.
‘It is proposed that the northern paddock will remain in equine use,’ the application states. ‘The proposal incorporates screening on the northern boundary with defensive planting in the form of a screen hedge of blackthorn.’
Other native species included in the planting scheme include hawthorn and elder, daffodils in the orchard, water Iris and grasses.
