Panel approves Samarès gym
Saturday 22nd May 2010, 2:59PM BST.
Some supporters for the new gym which is to be established in Samarès Lane
A GYMNASTICS teacher cried with joy this week when she found out she had permission to change the use of a shed into a gym club in St Clement.
Tory de Mond had battled against a lot of opposition from neighbours living in Rue de Samarès and the Planning department, who were recommending refusal of her application.
But at a Planning applications panel meeting on Thursday politicians overturned the planning officer’s recommendation and approved the plans to change store B, L’Industrie into a gym club.
At the meeting on Thursday the panel heard objections from St Clement Deputy Ian Gorst and neighbours in the area.
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nice to see the kids having somthing to do.
shame on those who would have stampped on this worthwhile cause, who would be first to complain about youth on the streets.
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Road safety, a particular problem in the area, should apparently not be placed secondary to the matter of youth on the streets and an ongoing business concern. This is a wonderful business opportunity and those who complained were, quite rightly, shouted down. What awful people they must have been to dare to onject! No doubt Mr Brown will welcome a business development near his address, as I imagine would we all. How about a nice motorcycle track to keep youth off the street? Or a 24 hour drum studio?
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The amount of opposition and it all gets pushed aside !!
I have no objection to the idea of a gym, it’s a great cause and yes it would keep the chosen few accepted gymnasts off the streets but to go against all recommendations and all the residents is disgusting.
Very typical of Jersey these days !
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I actually laughed out loud when I read this article. How dare anybody try to put a stop to such a worthwhile cause. Such arrogant, small minded behaviour is so typical of some people on this Island and an abuse of the whole planning application procedure.
Shame on all of you. Now get back to your curtain twitching…….
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It might be a worthwhile cause but it is also a commercial, money making business. Furthermore, those concerned with the impact upon their own property and road safety are entitled to their views, aren’t they? I think that “curtain twitching” better describes those bigoted individuals who believe that others should not hold opinions.
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For those of you who are interested…this is not a money-making venture…Tory De Mond is a dedicated coach, who just wants the children at her club to have the best training facilities available. The current gym at Le Rocquier school is just not safe enough for the children to develop their skills further as it isn’t a large enough space. It is not going to be a big business venture as it is limited to the number of coaches available and safety. You just can’t have large numbers of children participating at any one time, so please be assured that this just will not happen.
On an island of this size, there has to be give and take. I would prefer not to have my weekends invaded by the noise generated by the Moto-X at Sorrel or Karting on the Ronez Loop, but I put up with it because I understand that we are limited as to where these events can take place. We all do things that have an impact on someone else.
The children at the gym have been very successful at representing their club and Jersey at competitions in the UK, and now they can look forward to even greater success.
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It must be a nonsence to say that it is not a money making business. A child of my family goes to the class and pays fees. Honourable though the cause may be, are we really supposed to believe that those who run the school make no money? How can they afford to live? Is the enterprise a registered charity? I am not sure either that comparisons with motor sport are relevant. We know that road safety in the area is a concern. We also know that proprietary interests are effected. Is this a temporary permit or is it there for good? Will a developer take over this property when those concerned can no longer afford to run it without, apparently, making a living!?
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Why can’t the kart club go down there?
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They pay fees to pay for the rent on the St Rocquier school gym and to pay for the equipment…. the coaches are in employment elsewhere…they coach in their FREE TIME!!! The comparison to motor sport was to make the point that we all have to put up with things on this island that we’d rather not have, and one of the objections was the increase in noise levels which some people thought would be generated by the gym. I hope this help you to understand a little bit more Jonathan.
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Thank you, Gymnast’s Mum for the input. It is illuminating.
Your two comments tend to show that, in your view, planning considerations can be readily overriden by emotive arguments, although it is a heart warming case in some senses. I imagine that your residence is not in the immediate vicinity of this commercial but well meaning enterprise. I wonder if you would be as open to irrelevant issues if the venture were on your doorstep?
What most people fail to see is what will happen to the site in years to come now that this precedent is set. Goodness knows.
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Gymnast’s Mum; you must live up at St John if, as you say, you can hear the karts at Sorel. In other words, you live nowhere near Samares.
No wonder you have the luxury of showing an apparent disregard for planning procedures and the interests of those who legitimately objected.
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#2 ‘How about a nice motorcycle track to keep youth off the street? Or a 24 hour drum studio?’
That’s the second time a 24 hour drum studio has been mentioned on these pages. I am beginning to worry. Is somebody testing the water?
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Living in Jersey we all have to have services and clubs etc near us, we alllive near the airport, we have to because Jersey is so small, I find it ammusing that people are using the planning department as a defence, whennormally it is the one department every body hates, so we like the cinema and KFC on the waterfront do we? I mean that also had a planning officers recommendation, the holiday village at Portelet also had a nod from planning so that must be ok too!
What I am trying to say is that we live in a small beautiful Island and if we want to have sportsmen and women we need to allow these sort of things to happen, imagine living in town next to springfield stadium or by the harbour with trucks moving 24 hours a day (and they do!) so allowing children to better themselves in what is a relatively quiet sport is not unreasonable.
The problem with Jersey at the moment (in my opinion) is that we have lost our community spirit, we may know our immediate neighbours but we have become hostile to others, and we need to get back to getting on with people, life is too short to be bitter, and life is so much more enriching when we are happy and not fighting some one or something
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There is a certain irony regarding curtain twitching in Samares Lane.
Some of the properties have curtains inches away from the traffic, so they probably get automatically twitched by the vibration or the slipstream from vehicles.
Part of the road has no footway on either side and the house occupants take their life in their hands when exiting from the front door.
There are planning orders slapped on houses so there is nothing the owners can do to make things safer. This road is hazardous.
With regard to the commercial nature of the venture, where is the money coming from in order for the new venue to surpass the specification of Le Rocquier gym?
If it is being provided by the parents then they must have more money than sense. “No recession in Jersey” eh?
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Those who live nearby had their objections swept aside. Worse still, they were pilloried for expressing their concern.
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