Page 36 - ALG Issue 4 2023

readers articles
F J Ahier Country Gardens
A tool store for all plot holders
At long last and after much hard work over the last three years, the Horticultural Committee of the Royal Jersey Agricultural & Horticultural Society finally secured planning permission for the construction of 61 tool stores at their allotment site: the F J Ahier Country Gardens.
SO HOW DID THE SOCIETY REACH THIS MOMENTOUS POINT?
The journey began back in 2009 when the Society, in response to
the growing interest on the Island for the establishment of allotments
either by the 12 parishes of the
Island or by organisations such as
the RJA&HS, made an application to the then planning committee for the establishments of allotments on a field that had been left to the Society by Mr Ahier back in the early 1950s, ‘seeking consent to create 60 allotments, sheds, fencing, car parking and other infrastructure’.
Although the general principle for the establishment of allotments was supported, as the site was within the countryside zone and remote from
any settlement, the lack of adequate service infrastructure, plus the visual impact of the sheds on an otherwise ‘natural agricultural field’ meant the application for the allotments was refused. This was because ‘allotment sites’ did not fall within the then Island Plan. The Society decided to go ahead with the development of the site minus the sheds. The decision was also taken to call the site the F J Ahier Country Gardens and was opened in September 2009 by the then governor, Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Ridgway.
In 2017/18 the horticulture committee discussed the possible establishment of sheds/tool stores at the Country Gardens. It was unanimously agreed
to go ahead with the preparation of an application in light of the fact that since 2009 a number of allotment sites have been established across the Island with permission granted for the construction of sheds on these sites.
Our pre-planning application was lodged in early 2020 but, as a result of Covid-19, any planning decisions were postponed/delayed. In late 2021 the pre planning application was approved and our full application was lodged in early 2022. After a few amendments and additional information requested, approval of the application was finally granted in February.
Following planning approval, the horticulture committee then requested quotations from two local companies to supply the tool stores and for
their construction. Discussions for
the funding of the project also took place. Funding was secured from the
The order was placed for the tool stores at the end of June, with the plan that they would be erected in early August
36 Allotment and Leisure Gardener