Thursday 29 March 2012
Environment Department response to Open Lines Letter from Guernsey Press.
Enquiry:
Dear Sir
I am writing with regards to the letter I received from the planning control services.
According to the letter my greenhouse in the back garden has to be permanently removed as it's agricultural land and must be used for agricultural purposes, i.e. growing of crops or grazing of livestock. If the tomatoes and cucumbers I'm growing there are not crop I don't know what to name them.
They teach us to eat healthy food, they talk about local produce and they plan and control what you do. Instead we have to buy the produce from the UK or abroad that's been kept in a fridge for three days before it completely lost its taste.
Local produce and healthy eating - these are things on my list that I now have to cross out.
I hope our civil servants have better things to do and bigger goals to achieve, not 6ft x 8ft greenhouses.
Response:
The Department does not normally discuss specific enforcement matters through the media. However, in this case for the benefit of your readers it should be noted that the land concerned is part of an agricultural field (as opposed to a domestic garden) and structures cannot lawfully be placed on such land nor can the land be used as a domestic garden without planning permission. In this case, no consent has been sought or received and the Department has therefore requested that the structures be removed.
Contact Information:
Jim Rowles, Director of Planning Control Services
Environment Department
Tel: 717200
