Ventnor Blog

You might remember the saga of the roof terraces at St Joseph’s in Madeira Road - well sadly for all those concerned, it’s continuing.

When permission was granted for the development, the case officer involved, (Andrew Pegram at the time) explicitly stated that the roof spaces could NOT be used as amenity areas, ie used at all.

Of course, Mr Jennings ignored this and went ahead regardless, even promoting them in the estate agent details as sun terraces and adding a tidy amount to the price tag.
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Anyone who intended to comment on Michael Jennings’ recent appeal against the decision made by IW Planning Committee that he should revert his property back to that which was approved, rather than retain all the work he has carried out beyond that permission, but haven’t got around to it yet, be aware that you only have until 1st May. (more…)

Anyone with a keen interest in planning issues will’ve been following the saga of Michael Jennings and his ego eco-house in Undercliff Gardens.

It has been along running affair, with rejections, stop notices and a certain well loved developer apparently pushing on regardless.
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When will he ever learn?

We heard from the planning department that Michael Jennings, developer for St Joseph’s in Madeira Road, has been at it again.

Despite the original planning permission granted for St Joseph’s an explicit excluding him, he built roof terraces overlooking neighbour’s gardens.

After he was reported for breaking that condition, he then had to submit new planning permission to seek permission to retain them.
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Amazing what passes for an Eco Home these days isn’t it?

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You would’ve thought that after having a stop notice slapped on his St Joseph’s development and raising the ire of a large group of people living around his own house, Michael Jennings wouldn’t be wanting to waste any more of the planning and enforcement officers time, wouldn’t you.

It doesn’t appear so.
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A group of residents, concerned about the apparent inconsistencies in the planning process and in particular, retrospective planning permission being granted to a serial abuser of the planning process, will be gathering today outside the home of local developer Michael Jennings.

Some refer to people like this (the concerned residents) as a vociferous minority, others feel that the right to express an opinion is central to democracy.

The Planning Committee will be making their site visit to the property, prior to deciding the fate of this contentious application tomorrow afternoon at County Hall.
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Great news just in from the Planning Department that Michael Jennings’ attempt to get away with the roof gardens that he built at St Joseph’s against an explicit planning condition, have been partially refused.

A split decision has resulted in the roof garden for Flat 12 that would’ve overlooked the neighbouring property being refused. The Planning Department have wisely also gone a step further and will be insisting that the contravening roof space is filled in, within two months, ensuring that it unable to be used in the future.
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Credit where it’s due and it’s not often that we congratulate the planning department, but ‘hurrah’ to Andrew Pegram who eventually got back to us this afternoon, 10 minutes before close of business.

In response to our request that the consultation period on St Josephs be extended, Pegram stated …
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In the past, we’ve generally held off from airing issues that affect us personally, but after seeing a local property developer parading himself as a good citizen at the recent carols in the park (after the Ventnor Lantern Parade), we felt enough was enough and it was time that the public understood a few things about this “character”.

Many of you may know of the never-ending, conversion of St Joseph’s, previously a retirement home, on Madeira Road, Ventnor.
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Thanks again to Mark for taking to time to attend the Planning Meeting and report back to us. Here follows his report. In conclusion the town council have refused retrospective planning permission on Michael Jennings personal property in Undercliff Gardens and refused permission on Tesco Express in the High Street.

Further details regarding the Undercliff Gardens planning debacle follow on the blog soon.

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Report from Town Council and Planning Meeting: 16th July 2007
Apologies received from Meg Mortimer, Colin Elvers and the Financial Officer.

The meeting followed its usual pattern and it was very much business as usual.

Questions from the Public:
First question from a group known as the Undercliff Gardens Defence Committee.
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Former Bunbury developer, Mr Michael Jennings, has rejected the idea of profit in favour of good community relations.

In a letter sent to VentnorBlog, Jennings wrote “We are determined to do everything we can to maintain good community relations. Contrary to the opinion you may hold of me personally I regard this as a higher importance that profit.”

It’s no exaggeration to say the we fell off our collective chairs when we read this - because we were laughing so uncontrollably. Up to that point we’d always thought that Jennings only interest was to gain the maximum profit from any property development he got his claws into.

To try and get a better understanding of what has lead to this turn around, we spoke to one of his neighbours, Mr H Ushmai I, who told us “The change of heart could have come about since a stop notice was put on Mr Jennings own property, after he developed beyond the permission he was originally granted by the planning department.”

Showing what a beautiful person he really is, Jennings left the best line for the end of his letter, “Living in Harmony is important to me.” Doesn’t that just warm the cockles of your heat?

PS. Although this article was posted by April F. Ool before noon on 1st April 2007, funnily enough, it was not an April Fool!

Mr Fitzgerald Bond may well be pleased with his headline grabbing ideas (see County Press) for using airships to transport goods to and from the island, but some of us are certainly less than impressed by our local councillor - particularly with his questionable involvement in local planning applications (read the full history on the VentnorBlog Planning Peculiarities Forum.)

In case you’ve not been following this one - the first application to develop the old St Joseph’s Care Home was refused by the Development Control Committee on three counts. Minimal changes were made and the application resubmitted. There was great shock amongst the local residents when the planning department took it upon themselves to approve the reapplication without a bothersome public airing (choosing delegated powers instead).

But let’s go back to Mr Fitzgerald Bond … as a ward councillor, isn’t his role to listen to his constituents and represent their views?

So why is it that, despite the huge opposition locally against the Bunbury Michael Jennings development of St Joseph’s Care Home, he gave no objection?

During a telephone conversation earlier this year, when Mr FB was questioned about the validity of the Victorian wall being demolished to make way for a ‘Dallas’ style drive, his response was along the lines of “well it’s just made of breeze blocks.”

Dear oh dear Mr FB. Despite your site visit, you must have very poor eye sight to mistake a clearly Victorian wall for breeze blocks.

To the sadness of the local residents, the wall was demolished this week and the bank behind it excavated, to make way for something like this ….

Hardly fits in with the surrounding, Victorian area does it?

Reading this, you might not believe it, but Madeira Road is actually within the Ventnor Conservation Area.

It’s hard to understand how this barbaric destruction could have been approved by the Planning and Conservation departments, despite the advice to the contrary from the Highways department regarding the creation of a drive in Madeira Road (consistently ignored at every stage of the planning process) and that it’s in the narrowest part of the road creating a potential danger.

Despite all of this Mr Fitzgerald Bond, the wards councillor, said he saw no reason why it shouldn’t go ahead.

The most puzzling part is Mr Fitzgerald Bond involvement in the approval process at all. He had omitted himself from the initial Ventnor town council decision after he “declared an interest” in the project (quote from the official record).

Nice to see you giving your full support to your constituents!

By the way, does anyone know when the next local elections are?

Postscript: A couple of readers have asked why we’ve put this on the blog. Beyond being residents in Madeira Road, we think that what has gone on with this case is wrong.