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STATES OF JERSEY
ANN COURT SITE: PETITION (P.202/2009) – COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 4th March 2010 by the Minister for Housing
STATES GREFFE
2009 Price code: A P.202 Com.(2)
COMMENTS
The Minister for Housing is in agreement with the proposition that the Ann Court social housing site should not be used as the site for a multi-storey car park.
In P.6/2007, the Minister for Housing brought forward proposals for meeting the maintenance backlog in the social rented stock. P.6/2007 clearly set out that Ann Court was in need of significant refurbishment; indeed certain parts of the existing site were structurally flawed and needed to be demolished and rebuilt. The refurbishment programme published as an annex to P.6/2007 suggested that at 2006 prices a scheme to redevelop the site would cost approximately £9 million and would have necessitated the complete decanting of the 76 homes on the site.
Subsequently, the site was identified by Transport and Technical Services as a potential site for an 800 space car park, the development of which is necessary to facilitate the decanting of Gas Place and Talman in order to create the Town Park. An indicative scheme was developed which included the creation of 20 new social rented lifelong homes on the Charles Street/Providence Street corner of the site together with the refurbishment of 1–2 Clifton Place and 33–39 Ann Street.
Development of Ann Court, whether as a purely social housing residential development or as part of the Town Park scheme, was clearly going to require that all of the homes be emptied and the tenants and their families re-housed. This process began in October 2007 and concluded in November 2008. The Ann Court site has since been cleared of structures and has short-term consent from the Planning Department for use for rented parking, which will provide some income to offset the £500,000 per annum in rental income which has had to be lost as a consequence of demolishing the homes.
The need for homes for our ageing population is growing at a steady rate; the Housing Department's waiting list is alone indicating a need for some 320 such homes right now. The States rezoned a number of sites in 2008 (P.75/2008) primarily to provide homes to meet that need. Progress to date has been slow. The draft Island Plan brings forward a small number of sites. Some of those we know may be opposed at Parish level. The draft Island Plan sets out that there will be a heavy presumption against the rezoning of any further green fields. We must then look to our existing urban centres to create new homes, particularly homes for the ageing population. The Ann Court site could provide at least a hundred such homes and can therefore play a major part in meeting those needs quickly. A scheme could also provide resident parking, community and other facilities which would support such a development. A scheme to deliver those homes, at least 80 of which must be social rented homes, primarily to meet the needs of the ageing population, should be brought forward as part of the North of St. Helier Master Plan within the next 12 months. In the interim period the site will be used for temporary rented parking as a means of offsetting the lost rental income within the Housing Department's revenue budget.
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P.202/2009 Com.(2)