Now the States have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds wrangling over a beach café lease, P&R thinks it can resolve the situation “amicably”.
The row over Fermain Beach Café was sparked in 2024 when the lease was put to tender for the first time in more than two decades.
The current tenants failed to secure a renewal despite having held the lease for 21 years. They had hoped to continue doing so until their planned retirement – but States Property Services decided their end date would come sooner than that.
A new lease was agreed with the owner of Coco and Lola in town, and Belmiro de Freitas and Manuela Walter were told they had to hand over the building by summer 2025.
They refused, however, and took legal advice to challenge their eviction.
They reopened the café in Spring 2025 and are expected to reopen it this year too.
The dispute headed to court last year with Mr de Freitas and Ms Walter winning a three-year stay of eviction until 31 October 2028.
At that time, the costs associated with the lease row had already climbed over £100,000.
Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez said her Policy and Resources Committee – elected in July 2025 – now hopes they can resolve the conflict once and for all.
The previous P&R – led by former-Deputy Lyndon Trott – had been responsible for the States property portfolio at the time the row was sparked.
Deputy de Sausmarez inherited the problem, and another land-related issue at Fort Richmond – when she was elected as President of P&R in July 2025.
Updating the States on her committee’s work this week, she referred to that other recent legal wrangle on the opposite side of the island.
“As has already been reported in the media, the situation stemming from the States’ sale of Fort Richmond has finally been resolved outside of the court system, and good relations with the affected family restored,” she said.
“We are also having constructive conversations with the tenants of the Fermain Café: we’re hopeful that this situation can also be amicably agreed without further court involvement, and the relationship positively reset going forward for the remainder of the current tenancy.”