Island has failed to create enough sites for light industry, says minister

THE Island has failed to create enough sites for light industry and more areas will have to be identified, according to the Environment Minister.

Deputy Steve Luce said that his department would “have to work really hard” to designate land in Jersey where manufacturing, wholesale, catering and other industries could be based.

This week, the minister was questioned by Scrutiny on the Bridging Island Plan, which is the rulebook against which all planning applications are decided.

The plan came into force in March 2022 and was designed to be shorter than the usual ten-year plans because of the impact of covid on its drafting and Brexit on its ability to make long-term forecasts.

The 360-page document is due to last until the end of this year, but it is being extended, with next year’s new Government and Assembly to be asked when it wants a new plan to come into force.

One possibility is that the current three-year plan will be extended to the normal ten-year duration. If that happens, the BIP may be split into sections, which would allow for some changes to be made before 2032.

On the issue of the plan’s provision for light industry, Deputy Luce said: “In my personal view, we have failed, despite some attempts, to increase the amount of land for light industry in successive Island Pans.

“A lot of our light-industrial sites are quite close to residential areas and that gives us challenges. It’s a shame that Bunsfield made [it difficult] to find light-industrial spaces at La Collette.

“In the next Island Plan, there is no doubt we’re going to have to work really hard to try to identify some areas, and I am confident that we will do that.”

New regulations introduced after an explosion at Bunsfield oil terminal in Hertfordshire in 2005 restricted activity around where fuel is stored, which in Jersey is at La Collette.

The current Bridging Island Plan designates several “protected industrial sites”. These are: Rue des Prés Trading Estate, Jersey Steel at Beaumont, St Peter’s Technical Park, Springside in Trinity, La Collette, LC Pallot Properties in Trinity; Barrette Commercial Centre at Mont Mado, Thistlegrove in St Lawrence and The Fencing Centre and The Hidden Garden Company, and next-door land, in the same parish.

The plan also identifies new areas of the Island which “may provide opportunity for the provision of new light industrial floorspace over the plan period”.

These include using more land at La Collette and the surrounding Harbour area, non-operational land at the Airport, other States-owned land, existing light industrial sites and the use of existing agricultural premises.

It adds that work will be undertaken during the plan period, “to develop a West of Island planning framework” which may earmark more light-industrial sites.

However, Deputy Luce conceded that there was little to show on the matter.

The BIP states that for all light industrial, warehousing, storage or rural economy proposals – whether on protected industrial sites, in built-up areas or in the countryside – “there will be a need to ensure that the proposed development does not cause unacceptable amenity impacts on adjacent properties and uses or to the local environment in terms of noise, smell, light and disturbance.”

The impact of light industry near residential areas has been a particularly live issue at St Peter’s Technical Park, where residents living close by have long complained about the noise and smells coming from the hospital catering unit, which is based there.