Save Our Shoreline Jersey submitted their third planning objection to the Finance Centre Development. The application for the 520 space underground car park has now been lodged by the States of Jersey Development Company with the Planning Department.SOSJ have submitted an initial objection to this application (the third in a series of seven expected applications) although a request for data from Transport and Technical Services which we need in order to put in a more substantial application has not yet been provided. We have, however produced a submission which can be downloaded here as a PDF file.
We believe that his soulless development of a forest of utility multi-storey glass cube offices and wind tunnels together with its accompanying car parks in no conceivable manner ‘enriches the quality of the natural environment and built environment’ but, in fact, by proposing the destruction of an existing mature and pleasantly planted green and well liked car park, does precisely the opposite.
We do have other concerns regarding this particular car park application not covered by the submission and the primary one is on of inadequate capacity.
Advice from a specialist we consulted indicated that if all 6 buildings are approved, the 520 public spaces applied for will not be sufficient for these workers, visitors to the offices and public parking, which would amount to a requirement of 1500 spaces. In view of this very large discrepancy it would appear that based on the information included in the application someone has made an incorrect assumption somewhere. We await clarification on this and other points. To find out more, please contact us.
We believe that the extra infrastructure, traffic and ancillary needs of the immigrants required to fill these buildings (even going on the optimistic basis that half the staff may possible be sourced locally) has not been factored into the plans, has been hurried and not properly thought through.
At the time of writing this submission, we are still waiting for the answers to the below questions (sent in an email to the Director of Engineering and Infrastructure, Transport and Technical Services Department, on the 16th September 2013): Our questions are as follows: 1. What is the expected volume of waste that will be excavated and treated as contaminated from the proposed esplanade financial quarters development? 2. What is the percentage volume that has to be added to this as a result of expansion after excavation?
3. What is the capacity of a cell at La Collette? 4. What is the financial cost of one cell? 5. What are the space requirements for the contaminated excavated waste at La Collette? 6. Can La Collette receive this volume of waste? 7. How will this volume of contaminated waste affect the life of La Collette? 8. Will a new disposal site be chosen? The above questions and observations form just a tiny part of our concerns. In between editions of our SOSJ website, we will keep you updated on our Facebook page which you can access at the foot of this page by clicking on the link.