THE department at the heart of government – the Cabinet Office – has said that the dropping of plans at Strive in St Peter to create new indoor sports and leisure facilities “fundamentally weakens” the merits of building a hotel on the site.
Strive has resubmitted plans to build an international chain hotel between the Rugby Club and health club – which is smaller than an original application which was refused by the Planning Committee in November.
However, at that hearing, Strive managing director Ben Harvey said that plans for a third phase of development – indoor sports and leisure facilities on fields to the south of the site, after the health club and hotel – had now been shelved.
However, this has prompted the ‘place and spatial planning team’ within the Cabinet Office – which drafts the Assembly-approved Bridging Island Plan against which all applications are judged – to raise concerns.
In its comments on the application, the team writes: “The original business case and masterplan relied heavily on the delivery of Stage 3 – involving the provision of some associated sports facilities which might have qualified for support under [a policy of the BIP] – but such justification is not achievable with the current submission, which excludes the final stage of the originally approved masterplan.
“Without this wider sporting and training component, the justification for the proposal is significantly weakened and the standalone hotel lacks the strategic policy support that the full masterplan would have attracted.”
Despite the views of the Cabinet Office, which also raised objections to the first, rejected hotel bid, the majority of public comments on the new application are supportive, including from government arm-length organisation Jersey Business.
The Planning Department is yet to say whether it will recommend if the plans are supported or rejected.
