Plans go in for 200 new homes at Samarès Nurseries

Wednesday 14 December 2016

200 new homes could be built in St Clement, if a controversial planning application is approved.

Submitted by developer GR Langlois Ltd, the plans would see the existing Samarès Nurseries site, which is on La Grande Route de St Clement, demolished to make way for a mixed development of 20 one-bedroom, 89 two-bedroom and 91 three-bedroom houses.

The planning application comes five years after the site was first identified as a potential location for affordable housing in the Revised 2011 Island Plan, and later approved by the States in 2014.

Andium Homes – the organisation responsible for acquiring and maintaining the States Housing Portfolio – will buy the properties to offer to first-time buyers, with the majority intended for social rent.

We will provide 200 new rental homes at Samares, see the press release from GR Langlois here https://t.co/tiUl9mmozQ pic.twitter.com/081In59Ntb

— Andium Homes (@Andiumhomes) December 9, 2016

Ian Gallichan, the organisation’s Chief Executive, said that the homes would “make a significant contribution to the number of quality affordable homes available to Islanders.”

A post-war horticultural site later used for tomato production, the 9.8-acre spot has fallen into disrepair, with overgrowth covering the old glasshouses’ framework described as “unsightly” in the Development Brief.

Despite this, plans to build on the site remain controversial due to the site’s green zone status.

Pictured: The Samarès Nurseries site, as pictured in the Revised 2011 Plan.

This would be the second time Andium Homes has courted controversy in St Clement. In August, residents lodged an appeal against the homes provider for their plans to redevelop Le Squez, stating that the development would block natural light and infringe upon their privacy.

Worries were also raised back in February when tenants criticised them for not fixing broken lifts, as well as other maintenance issues. Andium blamed their IT system for the delay.

However, the Revised 2011 Island Plan stated that development on the site “can easily be integrated into the built-up area of St Clement through careful design and landscaping.”