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STATES OF JERSEY
ISLAND PLAN 2011: REVISED DRAFT REVISION – APPROVAL (P.37/2014) – SEVENTH AMENDMENT
(P.37/2014 Amd.(7)) – COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 11th July 2014 by the Minister for Planning and Environment
STATES GREFFE
2014 Price code: A P.37 Amd.(7)Com.
COMMENTS
Summary
I support the principle of providing allotments generally, and the Island Plan already has policy to encourage and facilitate this. But the assessment of a specific proposal to use land adjacent to the Airport Fuel Farm for this purpose ought to be properly undertaken through a planning application process, and not effectively predetermined by amendment to the Island Plan.
The Island Plan, in its current or amended form, would not preclude the principle of this land being used for allotments.
I do not, therefore, support this amendment, because it is both unnecessary and inappropriate.
Detailed response
Policy SCO6: Allotments of the 2011 Island Plan encourages and facilitates the provision of allotments. It is against this policy that any proposal to establish allotments adjacent to the Airport Fuel Farm ought to be tested. The process to do this is through a planning application. This will allow all of the relevant factors that need to be taken into account to be considered.
This will, of necessity, include an assessment of the level of risk to the public presented by the proximity of the Airport Fuel Farm: this factor may not be insurmountable given that this form of use tends be of a low intensity in terms of the number of people that might visit the site, and it may well be acceptable in principle. But other issues may also need to be properly considered and assessed: I am advised, by Jersey Airport for example, that the use of the land for allotments adjacent to the airfield may increase the bird-strike risk. There may also be other planning issues, such as vehicular access and visual impact, that need to be considered.
In his amendment, Deputy J.H. Young of St. Brelade raises 2 further issues outside the matter of use of land for allotments: these are addressed below.
Properties embraced by the Safety Zones
One part of my amendment to the 2011 Island Plan involves defining safety zones around the Airport Fuel Farm: this simply reflects the findings of a technical assessment, Jersey Airport Review of Fuel Farm Safety Zones (Atkins May 2011), and accords with what I am required to do under the auspices of Proposal 27 of the existing Island Plan. The presence of the zones would become a material consideration in the determination of any future planning applications within them.
The issue raised by Deputy Young is that Laburnum Farm, and its associated Field 282, are inside the proposed safety zone. Any issue of legal responsibilities or liabilities that might flow from defining the zones is, however, a civil matter between the parties concerned (i.e. Jersey Airport and the landowner) and is not a planning issue.
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Change to the operational Airport boundary
Deputy Young makes reference to Jersey Airport's intent to incorporate land that is owned by them within the perimeter of the Airport. The Department of the Environment has not received any formal request from the Ports of Jersey to amend the operational area of Jersey Airport within the Plan period, and any proposal to do so would require formal amendment of the Island Plan: this matter is not, thus, before the Minister or the States at this time.
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