Sale of States land to the National Trust (FOI)

Request

States owned fields in St. Martin were recently sold to the National Trust for Jersey:

Fields in St Martin sold to National Trust

A

Please state the amount tendered and paid for this land by the National Trust.

B

Please also advise whether the National Trust were the highest bidders for this land.

If not, please state the difference between the National Trust's bid and the highest bid received.

Response

A

The land sale has not yet concluded. In accordance with States Standing Order 168 a contract to dispose of land or buildings cannot be enacted until a 15 working day period has expired following the Ministerial decision. To complete the transaction a contract for sale will need to be agreed between the parties and transacted through Court.

Once concluded the relevant information will be published at the Public Registry and is therefore exempt under article 36 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

B

The National Trust were the highest bidders, however as the transaction has not yet concluded the amount cannot be disclosed. A higher bid was tabled but withdrawn.

Exemption applied:

Article 36 Information intended for future publication

(1) Information is qualified exempt information if, at the time when the request for the information is made, the information is being held by a public authority with a view to its being published within 12 weeks of the date of the request.

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

(a) of the date when the information will be published;

(b) of the manner in which it will be published; and

(c) by whom it will be published.

(3) In this Article, “published” means published –

(a) by a public authority; or

(b) by any other person.

Justification for exemption

Jersey Property Holdings (JPH) has reasonable aspirations that contract with the National Trust can be passed before Royal Court on Friday 31 August 2018, and in the event of that happening, the sale price will be a matter of public record. However, passing contract on that date will require the cooperation of the Trust and its lawyers, and JPH cannot rule out matters arising with the terms of the contract which may delay the completion date.

Once contract is passed before the Royal Court the details will be made available on the Public Registry Index and Document Enrolment (PRIDE) by the following Thursday.

The PRIDE system can be accessed either at the Judicial Greffe Public Registry, in the basement of the States Building, or at the Jersey Archive, Clarence Road.

Contact details for the Judicial Greffe can be found at thye following link:

Public Registry records