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Islanders are still being forced to shell out thousands for owning property on the ill-defined ‘foreshore’, Express has learnt – despite public outcry and a warning from an independent panel.
According to documents seen by Express, the government has been directly involved in, or party to, legal proceedings relating to the public-owned land between the ancient high and low tide mark on at least three occasions so far this year alone.
Including legal fees, the transactions total nearly £25,000.
It comes after the government was slapped down by the States Complaints Board last year over the controversial decision to make two coastal homeowners pay £50,000 ‘compensation’ between them for possessing seaside properties that encroached on the vague area of land, which, it emerged, is not officially defined on any map.
Pictured: Alan Luce and Julian Mallinson were two coastal homeowners fined due to the foreshore issue.
Their plights were revealed by Express in July 2017, sparking questions and fierce criticism by concerned States Members and members of the public.
Two years later, the matter is still being pursued and saw Infrastructure Minister Deputy Kevin Lewis grilled by a panel of politicians over the fairness of the policy.
He declined to comment, instead stating that he was reserving judgment until the completion of a ‘Landside Boundary Review’.
Although the Minister and his predecessor never overtly accepted criticisms of the policy, it had been widely understood that, since the damning findings of the SCB, the government had relaxed – or even hit pause – on its pursuit of coastal homeowners.
Pictured: Infrastructure Minister Deputy Kevin Lewis refused to comment on the fairness of the policy.
But that no longer appears to be the case.
When a couple sought to carry out building and redevelopment works to a St. Ouen Sea Wall property near La Route des Laveurs in February of this year, they were made to pay £3,150 (including GST) for both the right to install pipes to drain surface water from their property and to “clarify and determine the boundary” between their land and the foreshore.
In a contract laid before the Royal Court in the name of the ‘Public of the Island of Jersey’, the pair were in return granted continued right of access to the land, but also made to agree that the Department for Growth, Housing and Environment (GHE) could ask them to remove the drainage pipes or make alterations to the sea wall.
The contract also stipulated the couple needed to maintain an insurance policy approved by the GHE Director General “with a company of good repute… insuring the Public and members of the general public for not less than five million pounds.”
Three months later, a company owning a property on the sea wall at Ouaisné was required to pay just short of £20,000 (£15,000, plus £4,900 in legal fees).
Pictured: A contract relating to the agreement was laid before the Royal Court.
According to a contract passed before the Royal Court on 10 May, the company had put forward plans to remove “various encroachments previously established onto and against the Sea Wall without legal right”, but, in their place, “new walls, floors and associated components.”
The application was granted subject to several conditions, including allowing government workmen right of access to the property when necessary for the upkeep of the sea wall, and maintaining a £5m insurance policy.
Then this month, the National Trust found itself discussing the matter of the foreshore with the government.
Pictured: The National Trust has also been caught up in the foreshore issue.
Having sought to purchase a strip of land at Les Mielles de Grantez from an islander for £7,500, the government informed the charity that it might have a claim to around 20ft of land behind the Sea Wall.
“After a lot of discussion we agreed to rectify the boundary in accordance with the public claim subject to a number of restrictive covenants including that the land had to stay in its natural state subject to future repairs to the sea defences. From our perspective, this achieves our objectives in terms of safeguarding the area for public benefit,” CEO Charles Alluto explained.
Have you been pursued regarding the foreshore? Get in touch by emailing editor@bailiwickexpress.com...
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