According to the plans for Noirmont Farm, submitted by Portelet Hotel Ltd, developers are also hoping to remove a number of outbuildings along with some portable buildings, previously used by Jersey Mustard Seed.
A design statement, compiled by MS Planning, accompanying the application says: ‘The buildings consist of a two-storey farmhouse dwelling with a single-storey addition, a range of agricultural outbuildings of various ages and a number of portacabins and other storage structures. All are in varying states of poor repair and are currently unoccupied.
‘The main dwelling, when habitable, consisted of two reception rooms and two bedrooms with an attic room and an adjoining single storey extension with roofspace.’
It adds: ‘The client is proposing to demolish all the buildings on the site including the dwelling and all outbuildings as well as removing the portacabins. All existing built structures would be replaced with a single four-bedroom dwelling with parking and a garden.’
The previous application to demolish all existing structures on the site and build a five-bedroom house was refused – once by a planning officer in July 2018 and again by the Environment Minister following a recommendation by an independent UK planning inspector. At the time, the inspector, David Hainsworth, said that the harm to landscape character would be ‘serious’.
Mr Hainsworth also questioned the effort made to market the property for continuing agricultural use, adding: ‘The wording of some of the sales particulars suggests that some sites may possibly not have been marketed in earnest for continuing agricultural use.’
They were also not convinced by the assertion that the existing structures were not structurally sound. ‘It seems to be from the structural report submitted by the appellants and my own inspection that the main two-storey part of the farmhouse is still structurally sound, although in need of extensive refurbishment,’ they said.
However, the planning and design statement accompanying the latest application said that the ‘overall community and significant environmental benefits’ would outweigh the loss of the agricultural buildings which were inadequate for modern farming needs.
It added: ‘The removal of a range of dilapidated buildings, including a dwelling, and an employment use not suited to the green zone and its replacement with a single residential dwelling with high calibre design and ecological credentials would restore not only the countryside character of this area but also reduce the level of overall development on site and the broader environmental gains this would bring.’
