AN application to build 30 affordable homes on a rezoned field in St Martin has been rejected primarily due to concerns about its access onto a main road.
Dandara is seeking to build 30 homes in the field, which is immediately south of the Catholic Church at the northern end of Rue des Buttes.
The field, MN410, had been rezoned for affordable homes during the Bridging Island Plan in 2022, although based on an assumption that access would be dependent on going through church land to remove the need to use the lane and its tight access onto Grande Route de St Martin, which runs from the parish church down to Maufant.
However, a covenant on the church land restricts it to church use, therefore the only compromise that Dandara could secure with its neighbour was to build a low granite wall on church land at the corner of Rue des Buttes and the main road.
This would have kept vegetation at bay and made it easier to pull out of the lane, with the main access to and from the new development now being at the northern end of Rue des Buttes.
However, the Planning Committee on Thursday remained concerned about access in and out of the parish-owned lane and refused the application by five votes to two.
The group of politicians who rule on larger and more controversial applications also voiced concerns about the amount of parking on site, which each of the 30 homes having one space, and the fact that there is currently not enough capacity in the main drains network in the area for the new development.
Dandara’s plans for the 4.2-vergée site included 12 two-bedroom homes and 18-three bedroom homes with around half for social rental, managed by Jersey Homes Trust, and other half for purchase.
The plans also envisaged a public walkway to the west of the field, between the existing row of mature trees and the development.
The committee all expressed support for affordable homes on the site but a majority said that the scheme could not proceed with the current access proposal, which they concluded raised the risk of accident at the junction to an unacceptable level.
Dandara’s Adam Swain told the committee that negotiations with the next-door church had been going on for three years and the low wall was the agreed solution. He added that, when it came to drainage, the developer continued to talk with the Infrastructure Department, with several temporary solutions being on the table.
The issue is that there is no spare capacity in the sewerage network for the 30 homes until a large attenuation tank is built down the road near Maufant, which is not due to be completed until the end of 2031.
The scheme had been recommended for approval by the Planning department, although consultee Infrastructure’s highways team had said it offered a ‘soft’ rejection because of the access issues.
