Independent inspector to rule on plans for new home at St Brelade’s Bay

The site to the west of L’Horizon Beach Hotel & Spa Picture: JON GUEGAN (35955315)

A NEIGHBOUR living next to an empty plot in St Brelade’s Bay is appealing against approved plans for a four-bedroom beachside house to be built on the site.

This week, an independent planning inspector heard arguments for and against the decision to build a flat-roofed family home at Makai, which used to be called La Rousse and is immediately to the west of L’Horizon Beach Hotel & Spa.

Permission for the new building, which would have a ‘green roof’ and ‘living wall’ if built, was granted by the Planning Committee in March but the owners of nearby El Cobre subsequently lodged an appeal.

The main grounds of appeal are the suitability of the proposed flat roof, the scale and mass of the building and the impact of the plans on the neighbouring property.

The site already has three live permissions for development but a new application last year – to build a five-bed house with a pitched roof – was rejected because it was judged not to comply with policies in the newly passed Bridging Island Plan.

The applicant, Mr B Cooke, therefore sent his architects back to the drawing board to present a new scheme, reducing the proposed home’s size and scale by 6.3% and replacing the pitched roof for a flat one, which the committee unanimously approved.

For the appellant, architect Nick Socrates said that the flat roof raised the building’s height at its eaves by over a metre, which increased its area and visual impact.

Fellow architect Carlo Riva, representing the applicant, said that the building’s floorspace and footprint had decreased in order to support the new green roof.

Also objecting at the appeal was Deputy Moz Scott, chair of the St Brelade’s Bay Association, who argued that pitched roofs were more suitable for the area.

Having heard the evidence and visited the site, independent planning inspector Sue Bell will make her decision in the coming weeks.

– Advertisement –
– Advertisement –