Plan to stop new homes being built on the coast

Friday 23 April 2021

Building around the coast and countryside will not, in principle, be allowed in future, according to the new short-term Island Plan.

The 'Bridging' document, which, if approved, will set planning policy up to 2025, says there will be a general presumption against any development of new homes outside of existing built-up areas.

It does, however, make some provision for some exceptions for new homes. 

These include: 

• The provision of personal support and care
• Re-using of traditional farm or listed buildings
• The conversion or redevelopment of some employment buildings, “where demonstrable environmental gains can be delivered”

The plan adds: “Exceptional provision may also be made where it is related to the essential provision of rural workers’ accommodation. 

“Opportunities for other residential development around the coast and in the countryside will be limited to redevelopment of existing sites or alteration or extension to existing dwellings, where their scale, massing, height and design is in keeping with the context.”

The provision of community facilities, such as those for sport and recreation, which “support the health and well-being of islanders” finds favour in the plan, “where they are well-located and accessible and can be justified relative to local community need."

Pictured: The bridging plan introduces a ’settlement hierarchy’ outside of which, new development will be discouraged.

It adds that “proposals which enhance access to the coast and the countryside, and which are related to the use and enjoyment of its natural assets, through low- intensity active leisure pursuits, to the benefit of both visitors and islander’s, will be supported, where its impact on the natural environment is limited.”

Agricultural land “will be protected from loss” says the plan, although it also proposes building ‘affordable’ homes on 77 vergées of fields across seven parishioners. 

It adds that, while support may be given for the reuse or redevelopment of redundant land or buildings in the countryside, derelict glasshouses must return to agricultural use, whose development will only be supported “in exceptional circumstances”.

Pictured: The extent of the proposed expansion of the Coastal National Park.

One of the most significant proposals in the bridging Island Plan is the expansion of the Coastal National Park to cover almost a third of Jersey.

Development will not be banned in the park but it must “protect or improve the landscape and seascape character of the park and ensure that these special qualities can continue to be enjoyed.”

If the States agree, the Island’s huge inter-tidal zone and offshore reefs will be included in the park for the first time.