Cider maker asks again to open restaurant

Wednesday 29 June 2022

Another application has been submitted to allow La Robeline Cider Company to open a seasonal restaurant at its St. Ouen home.

However, it does not include a proposal to knock through a gap in an old granite wall to allow vehicles to access a field to park.

It was this element that prompted the Planning Committee to refuse the retrospective application at a public hearing last month.

The company is based at La Petite Robeline, off La Rue des Bonnes Femmes in St Ouen, which overlooks Mont Pinel, which runs from Hydrangea Avenue down to L’Etacq.

The new application asked for retrospective approval to build a single storey kitchen extension to a cider shed and use a shed as a temporary seasonal restaurant for Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings in summer months.

Despite expressing support for the business, the committee unanimously refused it as the access proposal was an integral part of the application.

This is no longer the case.

Pictured: La Petite Robeline overlooks St. Ouen's Bay.

The new application states: “We don’t believe the works forming part of this application have any effect on the listing of the property. 

“The building works are minor and some distance from the listed building and cannot be seen together. 

“The remaining elements proposed make no external alteration to any building in or part of La Petite Robeline and the proposed restaurant use has no material effect on the building or the site.”

Those speaking in support of the business at the Planning Committee hearing last month included representatives of Jersey Business, Genuine Jersey, Santander International, which has used the venue for corporate events, and neighbours. 

No one spoke against the application.

With La Robeline’s outside catering business grinding to a halt during the pandemic, owners Richard and Sarah Matlock began to use their ‘Cider Shed’ as an occasional restaurant on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays between April and September.

They also hosted private lunches and dinners for corporates and other customers.

They ran the seasonal restaurant successfully through 2021; mistakenly believing that they did not need planning permission to extend the cider processing shed and change the use of an existing outbuilding; hence the need for retrospective approval.

However, the restaurant has remained closed this season, awaiting planning permission.