A FORMER beachside restaurant – which has been the centre of a controversial planning dispute – looks set to be turned into a ‘financial services shop’ after the owner successfully applied for a change of use.
The permission for Nude Dunes specifies change of use to a ‘financial services shop’ but it is understood this can be easily amended providing the tenant’s business falls within a certain classification of operations.
This could include a potential shop, office, beauty salon, travel agent or other retail business.
The owner has successfully applied to change the use of the beachside site through building byelaws rather than the formal planning process. This is possible under Jersey’s ‘General Development’ legislation, which effectively allows certain developments to go ahead without additional consent needed.
For households, for example, this includes pre-approved permission to build an extension of up to 30m².
For cafés and restaurants, another permitted right under the Island’s ‘General Development Order’ is to change from ‘Class B’ – which essentially designates a café, restaurant, visitor accommodation or other hospitality venue – to ‘Class A’, which includes a wide range of retail and public-facing activities.
Following this approval, the building is now being marketed as a commercial let by Le Rossignol Estates, with the rental value being shared ‘on application’.
Potential tenants listed on the estate agent’s website include a shop, hairdressers, beauty salon, pharmacy, sandwich bar, laundry, ticket agency, office, hire shop and bookies.
The beachfront building overlooking St Ouen’s Bay has been empty since the operators of the high-end restaurant went out of business in November 2023, just five months after opening.
Since then, building owner Nadia Miller has attempted to sell the property without success and she has also failed to get planning consent to change the use of the building to create a self-catered unit of tourist accommodation.
In a statement issued this week, Ms Miller said: “Following the dismissal of a recent planning appeal relating to the former Nude Dunes premises, the property has now been formally repositioned with an approved Class A commercial use.
“This represents a clear and compliant shift away from all previously proposed hospitality or visitor-accommodation uses referenced in recent news coverage, and establishes a stable planning framework for the site’s future.”
She added: “Under its new Class A designation, the property can lawfully accommodate a wide range of retail and public-facing activities, including retail shops, beauty and wellness providers, pharmacies, travel and estate agencies, financial services outlets and other suitable client-access services.”
However, Ms Miller added: “Uses involving hot food, a café, restaurant, bar, visitor accommodation or broader hospitality activities remain outside the scope of permitted operations.”
Recently, Ms Miller applied for retrospective planning permission to keep a “temporary storage pod” on the terrace of the former restaurant in a bid to “prevent anti-social behaviour and vandalism”.
She is also awaiting the outcome of her appeal against two official enforcement notices which ordered her to remove the pod and a nearby fence, and also stop using the site for residential purposes.
The change of use to commercial forms the latest chapter in a long-running story of a former toilet block at La Pulente which the States sold to a developer in 2014 for £100,000.
The owners of Nude Food bought the building in January for £1.5m, using a £2.1m loan from Ms Miller. They subsequently put the property on the market in March 2023, conditional on leasing the property back to the Nude Food for a minimum of ten years.
However, no sale was forthcoming and Nude Food ceased trading two years ago.
