A headland with a view

Monday 16 March 2015

The final building from the old holiday camp at Plemont has been flattened over the weekend, opening up the headland to the views Jersey National Trust fought so hard to save.

After years of debate and wrangling, the National Trust for Jersey bought the Plémont headland for £7.15 million from a local developer who had wanted to build houses on the site. The clear-up has been ongoing for six months.

The Trust have had the soil on the site tested for contaminants and are awaiting the results, but once they get the all clear it's expected that an archaeological exploration of the site will take place before the Trust begins sowing grass.

The campaign to buy back the headland raged for years with the developer, Trevor Hemmings, winning planning permission to build houses on the site, before agreeing to sell it to the Trust. The final agreement saw the National Trust paying £3.5million from pledges, and the States agreeing to a grant for the remainder.

The demolition saw asbestos being found in some of the buildings, but on a more positive note, an ID card from the 2nd world war was also discovered in a German mortar pit used to burn green waste.

The plan is for the site to be returned to nature so that everyone in the island can enjoy it.