Call to stop the loss of agricultural land

Moves are under way to halt the loss of agricultural land in Guernsey.

Deputy Ross Le Brun said he would bring a proposal when a review of the rules governing the island's planning laws came to the States to amend a rule called GP15, to make it more difficult for agricultural land to be turned into domestic gardens.

Questions from Le Brun revealed that, since GP15 was introduced, 99.35 vergees (40 acres) of land within the agriculture priority area had been approved for conversion to domestic curtilage.

Le Brun said: "We need to protect land. We're sort of sleepwalking into a situation where obviously there's global events that impact food supply to Guernsey."

In the response to Le Brun's questions, the Development and Planning Authority (DPA) said it was unable to provide an accurate figure for how much of that land was actually farmed, grazed, or used for agricultural production.

However, DPA President Neil Inder said he had established a working group to examine whether there was demand for greater public access to agricultural land for domestic food production.

Le Brun said: "I would like to see GP15 removed, or at least changed.

"People want more homes. Well, we do need more homes on the island.

"In the future, to be more sustainable we need to build up."

Jock Petit, who runs The Soil Farm, said the policies to protect agricultural land in Jersey were very different to those in Guernsey.

He noted his organisation and local farmers were looking at the different approach and seeing what they could learn from it.

Speaking to BBC Radio Guernsey, he said: "In Jersey there's a law that says if you own agricultural land you have to have it farmed, you can't leave it to sit idle."

"We have to be rational in that we are a community that lives on a finite island and we need housing but we also need food," he added.

"I think we just need to have some sensible decisions and some balance in the different needs for land that we have on our small island."

The DPA said a full review of the Island Development Plan (IDP) was due by 2030 and that Policy GP15 would be considered as part of that process.

However, a focussed review of the IDP is set to return to the States before the end of this year, where deputies will have an opportunity to amend the rules which govern where building can happen locally.

In its answers, the DPA said it was monitoring up to 2021 and found agricultural policies were "generally operating as intended" and no immediate amendments were needed.

Le Brun said: "It's scary, really, because 23 football pitches - it doesn't sound a lot, but, on an island the size of Guernsey, what's left over to actually grow on isn't a massive amount.

"If we want Guernsey to keep a rural aspect, which I'm sure almost everybody does, then we need to do something about it."

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