07 July 2020
The Minister for the Environment, Deputy John Young, has set out for States Members his proposal for a ‘bridging’ Island Plan, which would provide a new planning framework for managing Jersey’s environment between 2022 and 2024.
Until now, work has been ongoing to review the 2011 Island Plan with the intention of developing a new plan which would last from 2021 to 2030. Now the Minister has set out plans to continue with the Island Plan Review, but with a limited three-year plan period, which will set planning policy from 2022 to 2024.
The proposal, which will be considered by States Members later this month, is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deputy Young said: “The Island Plan seeks to balance the needs of Jersey’s environment, community and economy and, while the immediate impacts of the pandemic are obvious, the longer-term implications will take time to see and to understand.
“In this time of great uncertainty, it is no longer possible – or right – to deliver a new medium- to long-term Island Plan, as was originally envisaged. Instead, we have the opportunity to create a shorter-term ‘bridging’ plan which will focus on the immediate planning challenges that we already know about and are certain of – such as the need to deliver more affordable homes – as well as the planning challenges that we face during the pandemic recovery, while resetting and refreshing the planning policy framework that the Island Plan provides.
“A great deal of valuable work was already completed or underway to inform the Island Plan Review before the pandemic arrived in Jersey and this work will continue to inform the development of the new plan.”
If the ‘bridging’ Island Plan is adopted by the States in 2022, it will then need to be further reviewed in order to develop a new ten-year Island Plan early in the next term of Government when, it is hoped, the impacts of the pandemic will be better known, and it will be possible to forecast the Island’s longer-term social and economic requirements with more confidence.”
Because of the programme delays caused by the pandemic, some changes will need to be made to the Island Plan Review Programme to enable the delivery of a bridging plan before the end of the current parliamentary term in May 2022.
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