By Julien Morel

Copyright jerseyeveningpost

THE owner of Nude Dunes – a former restaurant at La Pulente which only opened for five months in 2023 before going out of business – has appealed against official notices ordering her to stop using it as a home.

Nadia Miller, who acquired the building when the restaurant business she had invested in went bankrupt, was served two enforcement notices in August ordering her to stop the beachside building being used for private residential use and to remove a modular building on its roof and a fence.

The notices, served by the Regulation team in the Infrastructure and Environment Department, gave the owner two months to comply, giving a deadline of 7 October.

However, Ms Miller has now appealed both of these notices, meaning that they are on hold until the appeals have been determined by Environment Minister Steve Luce.

Interested parties have until 15 October to make representations to the Judicial Greffe for consideration by the appointed planning inspector, who will review the appeals before making recommendations to the minister.

The appeals form the latest chapter in a long-running story of a former toilet block at La Pulente which the States sold to a developer in 2014 for £100,000.

The owners of Nude Food bought the building in January for £1.5m, using a £2.1m loan from Ms Millar. They subsequently put the property on the market in March 2023, conditional on leasing the property back to the Nude Food for a minimum of ten years.

However, no sale was forthcoming and Nude Food ceased trading in November 2023, having opened that June.

Since then, Ms Miller has twice attempted to convert the former restaurant in to self-catered tourist accommodation.

Her first attempt was refused by the Planning Committee and while her appeal was recommended to succeed by an independent inspector, Deputy Luce maintained the original refusal decision in May.

This decision has since been appealed to the Royal Court.

A second application for self-catered tourist accommodation, which included enclosing the building’s southern terrace for use by the public using a café on the site, was also refused by the Planning Committee, a decision which has also been appealed by Ms Miller.

That appeal involved a site visit by an independent inspector two weeks ago, whose recommendation will be based on written submissions rather than a public hearing.

The Royal Court appeal for the first refusal is on hold until Ms Miller’s second appeal has been determined.

Her first attempt to change the use of the former restaurant prompted a public protest in July 2024, which was attended by between 250 and 300 people.