Dangerous planning precedent

Friday 25th June 2010, 3:00PM BST.

DEVELOPER David Sheppard has won his battle to be allowed to build on a green zone site off Route de Noirmont near Woodbine Corner in St Brelade. The Island, on the hand, is very much the loser in this controversial case.

To put matters in a nutshell, Planning, which should be taking every reasonable step to protect land where there is a presumption against development, has capitulated. The reason for this? It is because the department believed that it could not afford to fight Mr Sheppard in court.

This might smack of pragmatism. After all, pitting public money against a determined man of means could have cost the department, and hence the taxpayer, dearly. In this respect, there are echoes of Les Pas Holdings’s claim to part of the St Helier foreshore, which the States settled by shelling out £10 million rather than face unpredictable legal costs.

But money is only part of the picture in this latest climb-down. The real problem is the precedent it has set and the message it has broadcast to any wealthy person, developer or otherwise, who decides that it is worthwhile fighting a planning decision to the death.
Regrettably, Mr Sheppard is, too all intents and purposes, being allowed to buy permission to build in the green zone. This will be noted by others eager to thwart planning rules and could signal a proliferation of potentially expensive appeals to the Royal Court.

If this happens, the Sheppard case will be the beginning of a continuing problem rather than merely an unsatisfactory conclusion to a particular planning and legal wrangle.

Mr Sheppard no doubt believes that he is well within his rights to insist that he should be allowed to build on the site in question – as, presumably, he believed back in 2000, when he bulldozed Janvrin’s Farm at Portelet without permission. Indeed, there will be many who would say that it is to be regretted that individuals are, quite frequently, told by authority that they cannot do just as they wish with their own property.

That said, rules and regulations to protect the many from the essentially self-centred plans of the few are essential in this small Island, where open green space is precious and in short supply. The alternative is anarchy – a state which, in the realm of planning at least, might now be closer than ever before.

1
Paul

June 25, 2010 at 4:02 pm

I’m glad to see the JEP has fully investigated this issue before commenting.

Mr Sheppard has Planning Permission to build on the site. He was given the permission to build one property on the site prior to the land being re-zoned as green. This is why the Planning Dept are not going to challenge him in court as they know their case is unwinnable. The Planning Dept were at fault for rezoning land that actually had planning permission that cannot be revoked!

Please in future JEP get ALL the facts before such sensationlist unfounded headlines and comments are made.

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2
Scott

June 25, 2010 at 4:04 pm

There must be a legal case that the planning departments choice is final and cannot be contested in court?

Can we not just let the Royal Court throw the case out as a waste of time?

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3
Sanity

June 25, 2010 at 10:05 pm

This is as much evidence that again Jersey is ruled by wealth and that those with money are above the law as it is, that we cannot go on much longer with such a weak and incompetent government. This is as true of the council of ministers as it is for the excuse of a left wing opposition under the label “progressive”. The lesson here must be that if you have money and are prepared to pay for the highest calibre advisors and managers you will make a lot of money.

Instead of wining we need to apply this lesson to our government. Public spirited persons standing for election, full of good intent and spouting the good old politically correct “no more tax, down with GST, power to the people etc etc” make good headlines but in reality change nothing. We need the very best people to come forward for election and we need the mechanism, whether through pay or honours to get these applicants. Our current government spend millions on unelected Civil Servants and advisors. They are as much unaccountable to our £40k supervisor grade politicians as they are uncontrollable.
Until this changes we will pay higher taxes, receive less services and continue to be rules by unelected civil servants and those with the money to buy influence.

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