Friday 12 December 2014
Environment Department response to media enquiry from Guernsey Press.
Guernsey Press Enquiry:
I am doing an article on the refusal notice for La Val in Route des Blicqs.
I know the department cannot comment on individual cases, but a few questions were raised, which I hoped the planners could help with?
The notice comments that the house was accidently removed from the protected building register when it was transferred. Was this a single case or were more also dropped from the list in the transfer? If so, how many others have been re-entered on the register?
The other issue is about prosecution. I know the department has taken landowners to court for not complying with planning law before, but it is not that common. Can I check how many times prosecutions have been made and what criteria the department uses for determining when prosecution is the right way forward?
Environment Department Response:
One other instance has been identified where a building was inadvertently not entered on the Protected Buildings List on transfer of the Register to the List in 2009. This anomaly will be resolved shortly as part of the current review of the List.
In 2013 three planning enforcement cases were subject of prosecution. In 2014 to date there has been only one such prosecution. Prosecution is the last resort where all other avenues to resolve unauthorised development have been ineffective. The low number of prosecutions is in part a result of the effectiveness of the independent Planning Appeals process, through which a number of planning enforcement cases have been satisfactorily resolved over recent years.
Contact Information:
Jim Rowles, Director of Planning
Environment Department
Tel: 717200
