Land reclamation scheme in St Aubin’s (FOI)

Request

I would like to request the following:

A

Any and all documents / emails / minutes relating to the “emerging proposal for a land reclamation scheme in St Aubin’s Bay” (as stated on pg. 117 of the infrastructure capacity study released 15 April 2021.

B

The Grand Vaux flood plan as stated on Pg. 118 of the same document.

Response

The Grand Vaux flood plan is the responsibility of Emergency Planning. It was published on the Government of Jersey’s website in 2018:

Advice for severe weather and flood plans for Grands Vaux

Documents related to the “emerging proposal for a land reclamation scheme in St Aubin’s Bay” are exempt under Article 35 Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 - Formulation and development of policies.

There is similar information already in public domain, about the current policy position, as set out in the draft Island Plan and also the Shoreline Management Plan.

• The Jersey Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) provides an Island-wide assessment of the risks associated with flooding and erosion from coastal sources. It sets out a framework to manage these risks to the community, environment and economy of Jersey in a sustainable manner over the next 100 years (up to 2120), including the policy position for managing the risks in St Aubin’s Bay. The SMP is available in the following link:

Jersey Shoreline Management Plan

• The potential policy response to the Shoreline Management Plan, in terms of the development of new coastal defences (involving land reclamation), is set out in the draft bridging Island Plan: see policy WER4 at the following link:

Managing development: Minimising waste and environmental risk 

Please note a very similar Freedom of Information request has been made previously, and some documents which may be of interest are linked to in the response which can be viewed at the following link:

Flood planning (FOI)

Articles applied

Article 23 Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information

Article 35 Formulation and development of policies

Information is qualified exempt information if it relates to the formulation or development of any proposed policy by a public authority.

Public Interest Test

The Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) is withholding the release of the information as it relates to the formulation and development of policy and procedure by the public authority.

The following considerations were taken into account:

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure

• disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the necessary discussions have taken place

• disclosure to the public fulfils an educative role about the early stages in procedural development and illustrates how the department engages with parties for this purpose

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information

• in order to best develop policy, officials need a safe space in which free and frank discussion can take place – discussion of how documentation is presented and provided is considered as integral to policy and procedural development as iterations of documents are demonstrative of the development process

• the need for this safe space is considered at its greatest during the live stages of a project

• disclosure of this information may limit the willingness of parties to provide their honest views and feedback. This would hamper and harm the policy and procedure making process not only in relation to this subject area but in respect of future project development across wider Departmental business

Taking into account these various factors, the SPA has decided to maintain this exemption.