The Quarry · Land use

Fields into gardens

Every planning application since 2015 to turn a field or farmland into domestic garden in Guernsey, taken from the States planning register and mapped month by month, before and after the 2016 Island Development Plan.

Open the full page with the chart and method
20152018202120242026
Granted Refused Withdrawn or still pending Hollow: described only as "extend domestic curtilage", land type not stated Dot area is in proportion to the land area stated in the application, from 2020 onwards. Earlier applications rarely state an area and are drawn at one small size.

Selected application

Tap a dot to see the application.

What happened when

    Applications each year

    Where fields became gardens

    Applications granted since the Island Development Plan took effect (November 2016 onwards), by parish.

    How this map was made

    The applications

    An application is included if its description changes agricultural land, a field, paddock or vinery to garden or domestic curtilage, or extends a domestic curtilage or garden. Amendments to earlier approvals are left out so the same land isn't counted twice, as are extensions to the grounds of hotels, schools and businesses.

    Two kinds of wording

    Until about 2018 most of these applications were described simply as "Extend domestic curtilage", without saying what the land was. From 2018 they almost always say "change of use of agricultural land". The map shows the older wording as hollow rings. Not all of them were fields: a States spokesman put 2017's field-to-garden approvals at 17, while 21 of that year's approvals here name agricultural land and the rest use the older wording.

    Dates and outcomes

    Each application appears in the month it was validated, not the month it was decided. The outcome is its status on the register now, so recent months include applications still pending.

    Areas

    From 2020 most descriptions state the area involved. That is the area applied for: planners sometimes approve less, and the figures include land outside Agriculture Priority Areas. They are not comparable with the States' own monitoring figures, which count only Agriculture Priority Area land actually approved.

    Locations

    Sources

    1. Download the data (CSV, 830 applications)
    2. States of Guernsey planning register, Planning Applications Websearch
    3. States of Guernsey Digimap: planning site boundaries, land parcels and parish boundaries
    4. IDP has allowed more farm land to become garden, Guernsey Press, 20 Aug 2018
    5. Fewer fields, more gardens, Bailiwick Express, 5 Feb 2019
    6. Rush is on to change farmland into gardens, Guernsey Press, 25 Sep 2021
    7. Time to stop loss of farm land: La Société, Guernsey Press, 8 Nov 2021
    8. Developments in fields must stop: La Société, Guernsey Press, 21 Jan 2022
    9. More farm land lost to domestic gardens, Guernsey Press, 12 Oct 2022
    10. Field cannot be turned into a garden despite owner doing so, Guernsey Press, 9 Jan 2025