HIGH-PROFILE plans to redevelop the former Water’s Edge Hotel in Bouley Bay and replace it with a luxury home are in line with the existing Bridging Island Plan, according to a group of civil servants who advise the government on planning policy.
The Strategy and Innovation Team within the Strategic Policy, Planning and Performance department, believe the scheme would result in an ‘improvement to the character of the local landscape and seascape and bring in ‘significant aesthetic and environmental improvements.’
Proposals to revamp the site include demolishing the dilapidated hotel and building a luxury home with guest and staff accommodation, as well as constructing a new dive centre and café.
In a submission by the Strategy and Innovation Team to the application on the government’s Planning website, they said: ‘The proposals would undoubtedly result in an improvement to the character of the local landscape and seascape as well as bringing in significant aesthetic and environmental improvements.
‘Accordingly, the proposals can, as a matter of principle, be supported by the policies of the Bridging Island Plan.’
At the time of writing, the application has received 189 public comments, the majority of which express objection to the proposals over fears it harms the character of Bouley Bay.
However, the Strategy and Innovation Team believe that the principle of residential development can be supported in this instance as the hotel has not been used for a number of years.
‘The proposed scheme would replace a massive and relatively obtrusive hotel block with a significantly smaller and more sensitively designed development,’ they said.
‘The proposal involves the redevelopment of employment buildings, namely the former hotel. Accordingly, the principle of developing a new home on the site is a permissible exception to policy PL5.
‘The plans submitted with the application indicate an overall reduction in scale, mass and height of buildings, together with a significant increase in planting to secure restoration of landscape character across the site,’ they added.
Policy PL5 states that development of homes in the countryside will not be supported, apart from in ‘limited circumstances’ and that any proposals should ‘protect or improve’ the ‘character and distinctiveness’ of the surrounding environment.
