St Martin’s Village plan: Think again, says parish
Thursday 26th November 2009, 2:56PM GMT.
St Martin’s Public Hall was packed for the meeting to discuss the Village Study (00840168)
A packed St Martin parish assembly last night told their Constable to protect green fields from development.
The majority of parishioners felt that the Village Study, a development plan made public last week, was proposing too much land for development compared with the draft Island Plan.
St Martin Constable Silva Yates said that the study proposed building between 50 and 60 first-time buyer homes and between 25 and 30 social rented homes for the elderly over a 25-year period in different fields close to the pub and church.
Mr Yates said that the lack of affordable first-time buyer homes in the parish was ‘acute’. He is now asking parishioners to comment on the study, which began in 1993 and which could influence the next Island Plan.
But one parishioner, Peter Searle, pointed out that the draft Island Plan, which will determine Planning policy for development over the next ten years, was only proposing about 16 homes in the parish. He said: ‘There is a big difference between 16 houses in ten years and 90 houses over 25 years.’
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it is not just in st martin, where there is a lack of affordable housing its island wide, yet again those who are snug at home, are willing to deny a home to a young local couple with there lives in front of them. is it any wonder that those who are fortunate enough to go to university, do not come back.
which in turn more than likely, leads to the need for immigration inwards, which many do not want.
maybe those who sung at home have a few over priced hovels , to rent out to j cats as a nice little earner.
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I’m glad that the Parish Assembly overwhelmingly rejected this plan. St Martin is not the place for this type of housing; it should be concentrated in the southern urban parishes.
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Thanks to my old school chum Peter Searle for speaking sense. Maybe you will make a good Conetable and States member in the near future.
Thanks for the box of Black Magic for my birthday many years ago.
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As a St, Martin resident I don’t WANT to see more housing in the parish. However, at the same time, I recognise that there is a NEED for it if we want to allow lower earning families who have grown up in the parish a chance to remain in it. House prices in St. Martin are now so high that it is fast becoming the preserve of the rich, and this will soon damage the social balance and cohesion of the parish.
I therefore applaud the Connetable and his team for having a go at planning sensibly for a more inclusive future. It’s very easy for those that like things the way they are to sit back and ignore the problems whilst chucking stones at anyone who dares to face up to the future.
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Maybe these “Packed” meetings should be arranged with a 50/50 split of people from the Parish. Those with a home – versus those who cannot afford to buy one. Who will win??
There’s only one wy to find out :-0 ………..
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NIMBYs
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It would be nice to see a Village Green opposite the pub. The long granite wall and line of small tatty trees gives a dark and closed in feeling which does the area no favours.
They should remove some more of the wall (appears to have started already) and level out some of the field which is currently at a slightly higher ground level, and open it out to make a community garden area.
I don’t suppose we’d ever get the picturesque English Village effect of central green and pond, but it could easily be a lot better if people weren’t so aghast at the thought of changing agricultural fields in any way whatsoever.
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still renting , get afew like minded people , find them through face book?
and turn up to the meeting. if young couples want to get a voice you have to stick togeather.
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If you build all over the countryside – it becomes a town.
Look at the disaster that is devloping in Dubai – Jersey is heading the same way.
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“I don’t suppose we’d ever get the picturesque English Village effect of central green and pond”
Why should we? This is Jersey, not Sussex.
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Agreed no 10, The village should be left roughly as it is.
I don’t think St martin is the right parish for social housing, but if we really have to build some then surely Maufant is the most suitable place.
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To Dave 11:
I think your comment makes the most sense; it would be better to augment the existing housing estate in Maufant than to deploy social housing in St.Martin.
I believe that this is the case for two reasons : firstly, it would help to preserve the character of St.Martin as a rural, not a semi-urban, parish; secondly, Maufant is closer to St.Helier, where a lot of the jobs are, hence making it an easier commute into the latter.
The only problem I can envisage with this solution is the potential traffic congestion into St.Saviour’s which may result.
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No 6 – totally agree. I live in St Saviour. It’s time other parishes did there bit.
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We can’t go spoiling St Martin, it’s rural.
Gotta keep somewhere for all the people with standards of decency to live after they’ve made lots of money from developing the waterfront etc. (Come to think of it: The rest of the island in fact, bar bits of St Mary and St John and the part of St Ouen that’s just too exposed)
And don’t forget, Jersey’s most exclusive corner – the Ecrehous – is in St Martin.
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