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A meeting to decide if plans for a beach kiosk on the seafront overlooking St Aubin should be given the green light descended into chaos yesterday, with the proposer branding it a “sham”.
Gordon Troy had put forward proposals to create a café next to the public toilets at La Haule in St Brelade arguing that it was an opportunity to offer the disabled community better access to the beach via an adjacent slipway.
Disability charity Enable Jersey had also expressed support for the application.
But the idea was rejected yesterday at the conclusion of a tense Planning Committee meeting in which the Chair, Trinity Constable Philip Le Sueur, lamented what he felt were attempts to turn the matter into a vote for or against supporting the disabled community when there were genuine reasons why the site would not be suitable.
Case officer Sam Sellors explained that there were concerns about transport safety, given the location next to the seafront walking and cycling path.
She also highlighted planning policies designed to protect the character of the coastal landscape and noted that, as a new building, the kiosk would be at odds with a stipulation that development should involve existing buildings or be movable.
Pictured: Some opposers highlighted that there were already cafés in the La Haule area.
It was for those reasons, she said, that Planning’s recommendation was to reject the application.
Committee member Constable Kevin Lewis, meanwhile, felt the kiosk was being “shoe-horned into such a tight space”.
Mr Troy, however, issued a robust defence of the project. He said the site was uniquely suited to the aim of giving disabled people better beach access, with the slipway far smoother than cobbled slips found elsewhere.
He also claimed the risk of flooding had been exaggerated.
In advance of the meeting, nine members of the public had shared supportive comments, with many highlighting the ample nearby parking, while 11 raised objections. Some complained that there were two beach kiosks within walking distance, the Gunsite Café and at the slip.
Mr Troy had in advance whipped up support for the scheme on social media, and shared an invite to others to attend the meeting.
But those who came to join in support were eventually asked to leave after several interruptions in what was described as a “disappointing” turn of events by committee member Constable Deirdre Mezbourian because they wouldn’t be able to hear the rationale behind the final decision.
However, she noted, that the people who had left appeared to “have already made their judgment”.
Mr Troy said the meeting was a “sham”.
The Planning Committee, consisting of eight sitting members, unanimously voted to reject the application.
The area has been subject to several controversial planning applications in recent years – last September, Government officials made their fourth stab at installing railings along a section of the La Haule promenade.
Ahead of that latest application, more than £6,000 had been spent on the idea which had been branded by the public as a "a waste of time and money", "ridiculous" and "not necessary".
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