A political movement has thrown its support behind plans for the Sauna Society to remain at St Catherine after its proposed Waterfront wellness club was abandoned.
Value Jersey chair Lee Madden has submitted a formal representation backing Cole McLean’s planning application for the mobile sauna on La Route de St Catherine.
The group said the proposal, which seeks permission for an initial temporary period of five years, represented the sort of “positive, proportionate initiative” that Jersey should encourage.
It comes after Mr McLean confirmed in September that plans for a wellness club featuring two 20-person saunas, six ice baths and a heated magnesium therapy pool at Waterfront Gardens would no longer go ahead.
Although the Waterfront scheme received planning permission in 2025, complicated structural requirements and rising construction costs meant it no longer made financial sense.
Mr McLean said at the time that he had agreed a different location for a new sauna wellness facility and was also seeking permission to continue operating at St Catherine’s.
Mr Madden acknowledged that St Catherine was an “important and sensitive coastal location” whose environment, heritage and natural character needed protection.
However, the Value Jersey chair argued that environmental safeguards and responsible enterprise should not automatically be seen as conflicting objectives.
“Good planning should be capable of protecting what matters while enabling well-considered proposals to proceed,” he said.
Mr Madden said temporary permission would allow the business to establish itself, demonstrate its value and be judged on how it operated in practice.
He added that lengthy planning processes, uncertainty and unnecessary restrictions could increase costs, prevent investment and discourage local businesses.
“The planning system must protect the public interest, but it should not create unnecessary friction or default to searching for reasons why a proposal cannot proceed,” he said.
“This application appears to represent precisely the kind of proportionate and practical proposal that an enabling planning system should seek to support.
“It makes positive use of Jersey’s natural setting, broadens the Island’s leisure and wellbeing offering and gives a local business the opportunity to demonstrate its contribution in practice.”
Value Jersey said its support was conditional on planners being satisfied that environmental, heritage, transport, safety and other relevant issues had been addressed.
Jersey Business and Visit Jersey have also submitted comments supporting the application, according to Value Jersey.
