Good industrial sites lost to luxury housing development etc

[Wreckless1967]

If there is one thing that there is a dire shortage of in Jersey, it must be usefull affordable industrial units & sites.  Many times I have seen peoples lively hoods swept away to make way for yet more luxury housing developments. Whilst I can understand the simple economics of getting rid of old dirty work sheds and building lovely granite piles for the well healed to buy up, appeals to the establishment and the bank balance of the land owners & property developers, it surely doe's not help the ordinary Jo trying to run a small (or start up) business.  Surely a better solution would be to allocate and dedicate sites that usefull work sites and units could be built, ie some of the land at La Collette, some of the fallow poor fields around etc. Small 1000ft2 to 3000ft2 units with parking and unrestricted use would cost very little to build, and could be let at real affordable sensible rents (especially to new start ups). It seems that developers and planners are obsessed with building flats with shops underneath            (spectrum mall down Grosvenor Street mostly sitting empty) (Green street roundabout development sitting empty for nearly 10 yrs), and they are still building more daft debacles like these,all these are of NO use to anyone starting a small business.   Its sheds that people need desperately ??, places where people can manufacture things, repair vehicles, make noise, build- fix boats HGV's etc, and above all gain -usefull employment-.
Some examples of good business work sites that have been lost to development are
La Taq leather land and small engineering works, quarry site, all gone to housing, with according to my friend who had a business down there, recomendation for development of this site- get rid of dirty noisy old iron works- another 5 peoples lively hoods swept away.
The old bottling plant site at Millards corner gone to luxury housing. I wonder it any of those blokes that worked in them businesses can afford to buy one of them new homes probably not.
My old unit at the top of La Freminerie sold for develoment with the poor tenants of the adjoinig units given a measly 28 days to find alternative premises for their businesses, this has caused great distress to some of them.
Above all what all those bankers, politicians, civil servants, pen pushers, button pressers & clipboard weilders forget is someone has got to do an good honest days work and make or  create something in the first place for them to actually exist and have something to do.
So any more sites lost to development, there must be loads??

[man in the street]

yes makes you sick, well it makes me sick , the workshops that have gone over the years is shocking. and rents need to be fair , as those who use the services, can afford them too.
 where i work  we are allways on the look out for cheaper workshops.
 if our rents were cheaper , then that could be passed on to the customer, plus the gst that local business is paying, the rent, the elecrticity , water  the goods we import to do the work , the list goes on .
 no wonder white van man  does so well rolling of the ferry, to do the work that the local chap can do but has no base to work from.
 the goverment bang on about employing trainee's, but you need the work place to do it.
 only the rich will have homes in the future and blue collar workers , will be in states accomodation , imo.

[boatyboy]

Agree with you Roger, even David Cameron praises and then admits small businesses are the main driver of the economy.

In the real world the public should be allowed to take their rubbish straight to the incinerator sight ( without charge ) as they are saving the states money for NOT collecting. Its stupid to take it to bellozane and then lorry to another site. Typical empire protection.

The Bellozane is ideally placed to be turned into small units to help private business uplift the economy and provide work outside of finance.

BB

BB

[man in the street]

 totaly agree boaytboy, heres a thing  i use my car for work , and have  access to a company van for big rubbish, have a card to get into the  new incinerator.(not for the car)
 the otherday i had a roof rack full of timber(100kg roofrack on the car), and was sent to bellozane  the old tip, "thats not very green is it ?" i told the voice from the silver box .
 "sorry i do not make the rules " said the silverbox .
 the chap at bellozane  was on my side too he said it was daft, we had a good chat about a few other things  as well. it will be interesting  when i borrow  the company van  to dump a large amount of domestic waste on a saturday morning , that is my domestic waste but in a commercial vehicle.
 the bin men will not take what i have to get rid of for sure  and if i was to put it out for the dustman , could open myself to a charge of fly tipping if a jobsworth came past.
 mind you looks as if some pack and wrap sheds my be looking for  some  new tenants .

[Bachus]

Houston we have a problem!
I do not know where you live BB or anyone else , but I for one do not want a small or even a large industrial site opening up anywhere near where I live!
First off the Island is too small , there is nowhere for industrial sites to go , vehicle pollution, noise pollution, never mind the Eco cost, where does anyone suggest this takes place?
Well we could knock down a few estates where poor people live i suppose , but what do we do with them then? Only joking , that is obviously a very bad idea, but has anyone got a good idea? Les Landes gets used about 15 times a year , the rest of the year it just sits there being a very boring ,ugly place, how about converting a couple of hundred acres to hardcore industrial use? so long as you kept the racing circuit , used only at weekends 5 times a year and a couple of bank holidays , that woudl be great!
Far too much emphasis being put on the waterfront (disaster) if you ask me!

[danrok]

Bachus - I take it you have never, and will never make use of any industrial service in the island?

How do you manage?

The businesses which operate from industrial premises are absolutely essential.

[newmac]

As I've said in the past, the finance industry may bring in the money, but it's tradesmen that provide the infrastructure to enable that.

The Island needs small and large industrial units to survive

[Fritz]

Before we worry about Industrial Units, we have to have some sort of Industry to House.

[man in the street]

too right newmac, those who service the offices have a shed somewhere,  even if it is a lock up garage for materials and their office is the kitchen at home.
 fritz is right too , we have lost the pepsi factory  and the coca cola  factory, summerland jumpers , spax shockabsorbers , the tea factory , reditronics , RCA development, the  canning factory.
 does anyone of anything we make (not grow) by shipping the parts in and the completed item out?

[Wreckless1967]

Fritz its not just new industry that would fill units, it is any and every type of business that needs a base to work from, a glance through the trade pages and just think, every business needs a store, somewhere to park vehicles, a working area, small display area, office space, somewhere to put a skip? (god forbid), & an interface with the businesses customers. They also need to be freed from the draconian restrictions imposed by planning dep't, such as being allowed to trade 24hrs a day, being able to have customers stop and park outside, allowed to have a skip in the car park (yep a good friend of mine has to keep his scrap skip inside his nice unit even though he has a huge hard standing area outside, maybe a skip might blight the area, they have a bad history with skips and there owners??) & also be able to advertise there businesses freely and sensibly.     

[Fritz]

Who are you dealing with at Planning Roger?
They aint all bad if you approach the ones who still have a bit of common-sense.

[newmac]

Before we worry about Industrial Units, we have to have some sort of Industry to House.

There's a lot of people who would love the opportunity to start a business in a small affordable unit, it's near on impossible to find a small garage to do car or motor bike repairs, even places that in the past have been used for that purpose but in recent years have had change of use to other types of work can't be used as planning will not allow them to revert to the previous use.

[Wreckless1967]

There must still be a load of sites tucked away around the island that could be passed by planning for commercial use, maybe some government body or a group could oversee and help owners of premises and businesses unite and get a sensible decision on the use of premises for commercial activity. I know of some excellent modern large sheds that are sitting underutilised because the owner cannot risk spending the, I think around £1500.00 fee to apply for change of use and most likely be turned down losing the money in the process.

[danrok]

Before we worry about Industrial Units, we have to have some sort of Industry to House.

There are already 100s of small industrial companies.

But, you can be certain that there never will be any industry if no place is provided for it.

They seem happy to have a few acres of surplus office space, sitting empty, in the hope that a business will move in eventually.  So, the same can be done for other types of business.

There are many large companies in the world, which were once very small, and started out in a small, cheap industrial unit.

[Calimachon]

There are already 100s of small industrial companies.

But, you can be certain that there never will be any industry if no place is provided for it.

They seem happy to have a few acres of surplus office space, sitting empty, in the hope that a business will move in eventually.  So, the same can be done for other types of business.

There are many large companies in the world, which were once very small, and started out in a small, cheap industrial unit.

The fact that these office spaces in Jersey are empty is of no concern to the lending banks or to the investors in such properties.  There is little risk involved for them.   If they do happen to let the offices it is a bonus but they are making money on them anyway. 

It is up to us the public to ensure Jersey remains a green and pleasant land.  Unless we wish to become another Hong Kong! 

Cali