Neighbour fights against extra floor on beach hotel

Wednesday 26 July 2023

A plan to add an extra floor on the eastern side of the Hotel de Normandie at Havre des Pas will be considered by an independent inspector after an appeal from a neighbour.

The Planning Committee approved an application from the hotel in May but an appeal was lodged by neighbour Dr Alexa Kerr last month, on the basis that the development would have a “vastly overbearing effect” on her home.

In giving permission, the Committee went against the recommendation of the Planning Department. The group of politicians concluded that the benefits to the economy by having ten extra hotel rooms “outweighed the adverse impacts arising from the scale and design of the proposals”.

The committee ratified its decision at its next meeting in June, a process which has to occur when it approves against the advice of officers.

Pictured: Hotel de Normandie is based near Le Dicq slipway.

However, Dr Kerr argues that the extra storey, which would have a height of 13.9m above ground floor level, would “make the hotel completely out of keeping with the neighbourhood and dwarf the neighbourhood that adjoins the eastern side of the hotel”.

There were 29 public comments to the original application and nine to the appeal, with most of those latter correspondents supporting the appellant.

The appeal is provisionally down to be heard by an independent planning inspector at the beginning of October.