NEIGHBOURS of St Peter’s Technical Park – who have long complained about the lack of action on their concerns about daily nuisances from the site – are set to file a formal government complaint following the results of a similar case against them last month.
Paul and Sally Wood, who live just yards away from the park, say their lives were unproblematic and peaceful for nearly three decades until the hospital’s catering facility was moved to a unit 50 yards from their back gate in 2017.
For seven years, the Woods have called for action from the government and the Planning Department to ensure the businesses and services operating at the facility abide by the conditions first set when the park’s development was approved in 1984.
The couple have spoken publicly about their experiences on numerous occasions over the years – most recently last month – and they say no change has yet to be communicated.
They blame stress from the ordeal for serious health issues they have both developed, including Mrs Wood’s two major heart attacks in April.
The Health Department also confirmed in June that the catering facility will be staying put rather than being transferred to the new hospital at Overdale, much to the Woods’ dismay.
Last month, it emerged that a complaint about the Infrastructure and Environment Department’s handling of retrospective planning applications and statutory nuisance complaints from neighbours in another parish, relating to medicinal-cannabis cultivator Northern Leaf, was upheld.
The decision by the States of Jersey Complaints Panel came after the firm faced concerns from neighbours about “unbearable noise” and “disgusting smells”, among other things.
After reading the report on the case, Mrs Wood said the experiences of Northern Leaf neighbours and their treatment by government officials “was an exact mirror” of her family’s ordeal.
She told the JEP the couple will be filing their own formal complaint against the government.
The Complaints Panel’s findings centred around the Infrastructure and Environment Department’s “handling and lack of regulation” regarding retrospective planning applications made by Northern Leaf, as well as enforcement and noise abatement notices that had been issued to the company.
The panel, chaired by Geoffrey Crill, also criticised the department’s application of a so-called ‘sniff test’ threshold – something which has also been undertaken numerous times around Mr and Mrs Woods’s home – which “placed an unreasonable burden of proof on complainants”.
Following the Woods’ appearance in this newspaper last month, Health Minister Tom Binet and St Peter Constable Richard Vibert promised to visit St Peter’s Technical Park.
Almost one month later, that visit is yet to take place.
Mr Vibert said was because he and Deputy Binet were “extremely busy”.
“We are still looking at some possible dates, hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks,” added Mr Vibert.
But Mrs Wood said it “portrays the lack of empathy”.
“There is no urgency to attempt to improve matters and become the good neighbours they are always transpiring to be,” she added.
