BEING a journalist is sometimes very difficult. The idea of sitting down and reading all 500+ pages of the proposed Island Plan didn’t exactly fill me with joy. But that’s what I did so that at least when I comment on it, no-one can accuse me of not having read it.

The problem with a document like the draft plan, however, is how few people are going to bother to plough through 532 pages. We should, of course, because it’s an extremely important document which will help to shape the future of the Island over the next ten years.

It also contains new material on what makes the Island tick, and sets out the way policy is going to change, sometimes dramatically, to tackle some of the Island’s almost insoluble problems. It also offers a detailed look at more mundane issues, such as where we are going to be able to park our car or peddle our bike in future.

In short, there’s something for everyone and it should be a best seller (but you don’t have to buy it. It’s free on the internet).

The public is being actively encouraged to comment on the draft and the consultation period has just been extended to the end of March, so there’s still time to read it, or at last read the bits that interest you.

Another problem with documents like the draft plan is that it’s very easy to get bogged down in the details and forget the basic principles that should be applied in deciding who can do what, and particularly, where.

So despite my outstanding dedication in reading the report, I will resist diving into the detail and instead take an overview of the whole plan and what it seeks to achieve.

The first thing that needs to be said is that it is perhaps unnecessarily complex. Of course it’s a difficult job deciding how to handle different activities in a crowded Island – we’ve already got a myriad of different zones where people can’t do one thing or the other.

But the new version of the plan proposes a Green Zone, a Shoreline Zone, Marine Zones, regeneration zones, strategic development zones, coastal park zones, green backdrop zones, pedestrian priority zones, residents’ parking zones, Sites of Special Interest, Ramsar sites, Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation and Environmentally Sensitive Areas.

They all have their own criteria, but some cover such a small area that there will have to be exemptions and there will be ample opportunity to fudge. What is required is a clear policy that protects areas that need to be protected, and the Island is small enough to look at each parcel of land on its own merits, not whether it fits into the narrow criteria of one zone or another.

That is perhaps the overriding policy that doesn’t come across clearly in the plan. There are many fine words about protecting the countryside and limiting development, immediately followed by reasons why this doesn’t apply in this particular area or that particular area.

To my simple mind, the over-riding principle should be that we don’t use up one more inch of our special open spaces for anything, and I mean anything. I don’t care if its housing for locals, the provision of retirement homes for the elderly, or luxury homes for 1(1)(k) residents. We don’t use existing open spaces.

There’s another principal that follows on from that which should also be in the plan, but isn’t. We should use what space we do have for only the most essential requirements and stop trying to accommodate all the aspirations (not just needs) of all Islanders.

If we find there isn’t any more room for local housing, we simply don’t build it. We use what we’ve got more effectively, a principle that is adopted in the plan, although perhaps a little half-heartedly. After all, what’s the point in providing houses for locals if it turns the Island into something the locals will no longer appreciate.

The plan itself indicates that it shouldn’t be too difficult to meet the expected demand for local housing over the plan period, but then goes on to argue that more land in the countryside needs to be re-zoned in a ‘belt and braces’ approach to the provision of suitable housing sites.

As the plan says, we have to use available sites more effectively, even if it requires denser development. That, I’m sorry to say, is the price of living in a crowded island.

It also means finding more land which is currently not considered suitable for local housing. That includes sites currently only available to the rich. Why should we allow wealthy residents to build massive new properties when there is no space to build public housing? There are many local people with housing qualifications who would love to live in a choice coastal location even if it doesn’t have a bus stop. And if you can’t use that land to fulfil housing needs, then why should it be built on to satisfy the wants of a wealthy resident?

I’ve got nothing against the wealthy – I would like to be one myself – and we may well want more wealthy residents to live here, but that doesn’t mean to say we need more 1(1)(k) properties. Look at Guernsey. They have a limited open market of houses available to non-locals, but that doesn’t stop the likes of billionaire Guy Hands wanting to live there.

So the big problem with the Island Plan is that the planners are prepared to interfere with what we do to a certain extent but not enough to solve the problem. And the big problem for young Islanders, of course, is not the availability of housing. It’s that they can’t afford it.

The draft Island Plan has some radical ideas on how to provide more affordable housing, and property developers and builders will no doubt be up in arms about the States interfering in their ability to make an honest profit. But as the plan acknowledges, this is the crisis facing the Island.

Whether the plan goes far enough in intervening in the housing development market is very questionable. They obviously don’t want to upset the developers too much. Of course in an ideal world, no intervention would be required, but we’re talking about Jersey here.

Perhaps you think differently. Well you have until the end of March to express your views.

Peter Body is editor of Business Brief magazine