More of St Brelade’s Bay to receive coastal park status?

ST Brelade’s Bay Moz Scott Picture: DAVID FERGUSON

Moz Scott, who chairs the St Brelade’s Bay Association, launched a petition – which has attracted more that 1,100 signatures – calling for the bay to be made a Coastal National Park, to help protect it from large-scale development and to preserve its tourist sites.

In response, ministers said that under the Island Plan review – which will set Jersey’s planning policy between 2022 and 2024 – the Coastal National Park boundaries that are currently defined in the 2011 Island Plan will be examined. They said that parts of St Brelade’s Bay are already included in the park, and the review will consider whether more of the bay itself, and other parts of the Island, ‘should be embraced by it’.

Ms Scott said that the group was ‘encouraged’ that a review of the park’s boundaries was being considered, but that ‘far more work’ needs to be done to consider the impact of housing on the landscape, and the subsequent effect on local tourism businesses.

St Brelade's Bay from above. Picture: DAVID FERGUSON (30297010)

‘The ministers’ response fails to recognise the problem explained in notes to the SBBA’s petition that allowing hotels to become residential properties to help them raise funds risks their owners cashing in completely by selling them off for residential development,’ she said. ‘In fact, it appears to support this.’

She added that she had recently been speaking with Simon Soar, who is head of the Jersey Hospitality Association, about the SBBA’s concern that the JHA had not sought to represent the bay as a ‘distinct area in formulating its strategic position’ regarding housing developments.

‘My conclusion is that the Economic Development Minister [Lyndon Farnham] is failing to be proactive in supporting the special needs of the bay’s local tourist industry, despite its value to the tourism industry of the Island as a whole,’ she added.

– Advertisement –
– Advertisement –