A FEATURE of life in the east of the Island – Holme Grown in Grouville -has shut its doors for good with the lost of 20 jobs – however, the Hospice shop there is staying open.
Former grower Stanley Payn, who first opened a farm shop there in 2003, said the decision to close the Holme Grown shop and café was “heart-breaking” but his family’s attempts to make the site viable had been thwarted by the planning process.
He said: “It is a very, very sad day for us; this morning, our staff were understandably in tears at the news. We started with a barrow on the road, which I built up into a successful business. We’ve tried so hard to make sure that we change with the times but, at the end of the day, we have got 30 acres here, and we have not been able to do anything with it, planning wise
Mr Payn said that the “final straw” had been his application to open the Hospice shop.
He said: “This was delayed by eight months, during which time we had a half-empty shop, because Planning sent an email to say that our approved application was unlawful due to an issue on their side; not ours.
“We’ve been trying to claw back ever since then.”
Mr Payn has proposed various plans for different parts of Holme Grown – branded ‘Britain’s Most Southerly Farm Shop’ – including a 50-bed care home with standalone Hospice Shop, and cannabis farm.
The care home proposal was refused, and while the cannabis farm was approved by the Planning Committee in 2023, it did not get ministerial sign-off and the proposed grower walked away.
“I feel I’ve had my legs cut off by the planning system,” said Mr Payn. “You have an asset and you try and do something viable with it, and you can’t. Everything in life has a sell by day, whether it’s a school building or a hotel.
“Some of my glasshouses are 60 years old, and Planning seem to think they are economically viable, but that’s just a nonsense.
“I feel absolutely shattered and disappointed that we’ve had to make this decision.”
Mr Payn added: “The Island has lost its soul over the last 20/30/40/50 years, and everything seems to revolve around finance. We are a small-to-medium-sized business, and the number of hoops that one has to go through – even when trying to open a charity shop, which for us was a simple change of conditions – has broken this camel’s back.
“We’ve been trying to rescue the situation since then – and while it means the end of our farm shop and café, we’re very pleased to have Hospice still on board and open.”
