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A Jersey-based entrepreneur has been ordered to stop works on a listed farmhouse St. Ouen – including installing an outdoor giraffe statue – by the Planning Department.
Tamba Park creator Jonathan Ruff was first served with a ‘Stop Notice’ relating to La Vielle Fontaine and Field No. 01149 on 10 August, then another on 17 August.
It came as a nearby resident spotted a giraffe statue being installed at the premises. They also reported seeing a number of other statues outside, including a sitting man and a dolphin.
The enforcement notice said work should stop immediately at the property and field because over an alleged failure to secure the correct planning permission, and warned of prosecution under the Planning and Building Law for any failure to comply with the notice.
The notice explained that any works on the area may damage its “character and integrity”, and that the intention was to “prevent the loss of agricultural land”.
The order had a seven-day deadline. When this expired on Monday, a further ‘Stop Notice’ was issued.
Construction activities at the property have since ceased.
An Enforcement official explained: “A Stop Notice may be served where there has been a breach of development controls and it is considered to be expedient that an activity constituting or forming part of that breach should cease… The Stop Notice was served on the landowner on 10 August 2020 – the notice ceases to have effect 7 days after its service. Therefore the first Stop Notice was superseded by a second Stop Notice (served on the land owner on 17 August 2020) referring to the same breach of development controls as the first Notice.”
They added that “any further action is yet to be determined.”
The property in question has protected status due to its historic qualities.
It is described on the island’s Listed Buildings Register as being “a house of early date , retaining historic character and some important interior features - in particular, two almost complete and original medieval fireplaces surviving intact.”
Express contacted Mr Ruff for comment, but did not receive a response.
Pictured top: The giraffe installation caught on camera by a St. Open resident.
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