Yesterday the Planning Committee approved an
application from the Co-op to build a new En Route on the site of the current Jersey Farmers Trading Union’s Town and Country site in Trinity.
The existing structure will be demolished and replaced with a new 318-square-metre shop with six petrol pumps and 28 parking spaces, plus three residential units above.
Subject to parish approval, the shop and forecourt will be open 7 am to 10 pm seven days a week – later than other petrol stations in the area – and will initially run in addition to the nearby Co-op Locale at Sion, which will then be reviewed.
The JFTU, meanwhile, has said that it plans to relocate and is in the process of looking at a new site.
Previously, the Co-op has said that the new shop would enable it to offer a much broader food range in that area of the Island as well as its ‘market-leading fuel offer’. The company regularly gives customers who spend a certain amount on food a voucher to get money off petrol.
Currently the Co-op’s En Route petrol price is the seventh lowest in the Island at 108.9p per litre. According to the Jersey Consumer Council’s Fuel Watch, Motor Mall, down the road from the proposed new shop, is cheapest at 105.9p.
The plans were unanimously approved by the Planning Committee following a short hearing on the matter.
Two neighbours spoke against the application, not because of the development itself but because of the impact certain aspects of it would have on their properties. One, Alan Dodd, who lives in one of two new granite homes next to the current car park, said he supported the development but had concerns about traffic in the area and the lack of a proper bus stop on the northbound side of the road, which may be more in demand once the shop opens.
‘I have no objections to the development – we think it would be an improvement to what is existing on this site,’ he said.
He also told the committee he had asked for a fence between the new car park and the homes to be replaced with a wall to stop light from headlights shining into the homes, a request that was accepted by the developers.
Mr Dodd also asked for a barrier to be used at the entrance to the car park when the shop was closed, which was also accepted.
The committee noted his concerns but said that it could not do anything about the bus stop on the northbound side of the road, suggesting instead it was a matter for the parish and the Infrastructure Department to consider, along with a concern about a need for traffic-calming measures in the area generally. A new bus shelter on the southbound side is being provided by the Co-op.
Offering his approval to the plans, Deputy Russell Labey said he felt that the neighbours had been ‘very fair’ in their concerns. Committee chairman Constable Juliette Gallichan and Deputy Jeremy Maçon also approved the application, while Trinity Constable John Le Sueur excused himself from the discussion because the development is in his parish.
