Regulation changes will not see the eradication of planning measures to protect the countryside, Minister for Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries told this year’s Jersey Farming Conference.
Senator Mary Le Hegarat made the comment in response to a question about possible amendments that have been mooted by Minister for Planning and Regulation Senator Mark Boleat.
He has said that planning policy is too concerned with preserving the past rather than looking to the future.
A report written by Senator Boleat and Alan Merry for the Policy Centre Jersey, before the former was in the States Assembly, said current planning policy was too restrictive.
“The whole planning system attempts to do too much, covering not only planning but a wide range of social and economic issues which it is not well suited to do,” the report said. “It takes little account of costs imposed by the system and gives inadequate weight to other public policy objectives.”
The authors also said that consideration should be given to abolishing third-party appeals if confidence in the system improves.
Senator Le Hegarat was insistent that this would not lead to a free-for-all, and her department would be there to safeguard the countryside.
“Let’s make this quite clear,” she said. “This is something that there was obviously a lot of discussion about within the States Assembly, about what was this going to mean for the countryside.
“I understand that people might be concerned because some quite radical things have been said.
“I’ll make it quite clear that the teams that are under Environment and the teams that are under the Regulation are already working together.
“I will be regularly meeting with Senator Boleat. I think it’s important that we discuss anything that’s going to see significant changes in relation to what he brings forward. So I’m quite confident that we won’t allow the eradication of any of the planning implications that will be for the countryside.”
