The environmental group is calling for the Planning Committee to reject an application for a 60-space car park which involves the parish using agricultural land to create the spaces, as well as associated gardens.
Save Jersey’s Heritage chairman Christopher Scholefield said that the car park would transform the view of the parish church from the south across an open field.
‘It will, instead, be viewed across a sea of parked cars,’ he said, adding that they were astonished by the prospect of the sacrifice of agricultural land for a car park when the Island was looking for ways to reduce its dependence on cars.
However, the proposals – which will be considered by the committee next Thursday [10 Dec]– have been recommended for approval by the Planning Department after no objection was raised to updated plans by the department’s Historic Environment team.
The scheme, which is intended to improve congestion during drop-off and pick-up times from St John’s Primary School, also have the support of the school’s head teacher and deputy head.
But in his response on behalf of Growth, Housing and the Environment’s Transport and Operations Department, senior transport planner William Prendergast pointed out that the application contravened five policies of the Island Plan, a document that sets planning policy for Jersey, in addition to the 2020 Sustainable Transport Strategy.
‘The case for the need for additional parking is not proven, and promoting the needs of non-car users is insufficiently addressed to mitigate the impacts that the new car park will have upon them,’ Mr Prendergast states in his response to the consultation.
Save Jersey’s Heritage welcomed what they described as the senior transport planner’s ‘unprecedentedly frank comments’.
‘Rarely has a public scheme been so contrary to [Island Plan] policies. We have reached “peak car” and now it is time for the turning of the tide,’ Mr Scholefield said.
