Robert Luetkehaus, the applicant, had hoped to create four one-bedroom, nine two-bedroom and two three-bedroom flats over three storeys on the Plat Douet Road site.
The planned development named ‘Les Soeurs’ or, in English, ‘The Sisters’ – in a nod to the site’s previous occupants – featured a new pedestrian footpath running part way opposite the western end of FB Fields, a 32-bay bicycle store and a new bus shelter on Green Road. A total of 24 parking spaces for residents had also been planned.
However, the Planning Department deemed that the development would have an overbearing impact on neighbouring properties, be too dense and be out of character with the surrounding area.
‘The proposed building is three-storey and includes mansard roofs that add to the verticality of the building that is not sufficiently broken up with set backs or differentiation of height across the building’s elevations,’ a report outlining the department’s decision said.
‘This, combined with the siting close to the site boundaries at the front and sides of the building, results in the building filling the site at high density which would be over-development of the site, out of character with the prevailing character of the area and therefore for this first reason [the application] is recommended for refusal.’
According to the report, the proposed development would also have an overbearing impact on a property called Chalet Abaco on the nearby Green Road and this would have constituted a second reason for refusal.
In June 2018, the last four sisters to serve Beaulieu Convent School – with a combined 180 years of service – retired to the Order of the Immaculate Conception Saint-Méen-Le-Grand’s Mother House in Brittany.
The order first came to Jersey in 1924, establishing Beaulieu in 1951. However, no nuns have taught at the school since 2003.
According to records, the house, previously called Banasha and then renamed Straven, was sold to Les Soeurs Jersey Ltd by St Méen Limited in January 2019 for £1.1 million.
The company is now appealing against the Planning Department’s refusal claiming that insufficient regard was given to a number of issues including the Island’s shortage of housing, the Island Plan’s emphasis on new residential developments in the built-up area and the expectation of privacy within the built-up area.
