Cobo car park row: ‘the owner’ breaks his silence

A MYSTERY man who claims to own Cobo car park has finally spoken out about the dispute over the land - ending 18 months of silence.

Sark resident Thomas Holroyd, 38, speaking exclusively to the Guernsey Press, said he had bought Fief Les Carterets, which he says includes the car park, from his mother at the end of 2006 for £50,000.

The long-running dispute between Mr Holroyd and Sandpiper, which owns the Checkers Xpress store that relies on the car park, started when he contacted the company at the beginning of 2007 asking it to sign a new agreement for use of the land because the previous one was due to expire.

That agreement had been signed in 1987 by the previous seigneurs of the fief, the parish and surrounding businesses, giving permission for them to use the car park in exchange for paying for its upkeep. Mr Holroyd said he no longer felt that agreement to be fair or appropriate.

‘My mother was also paying insurance for the land and that did not seem right to me,’ he said.

‘So I spoke to the constables about it and approached Sandpiper to ask them to sign an agreement, pay rent and cover the insurance. In return for that, AW Holdings [Mr Holroyd’s company] would pay for the upkeep and re-tarmacing.’

Mr Holroyd, who declined to be photographed, said he was not prepared, at this stage, to say how much rent he had asked for, but Sandpiper CEO Tony O’Neill said it was £120,000 per year. (from thisisguernsey)

Sounds like Mr Holroyd thought he might get rich quick by hitting sandpiper with this..

maybe a new version of the sark lark lol

The carpark is essential to maintaining the business for Sandpiper and the other shops in the area. Sandpiper were getting it at a cheap price if all they had to do was maintain it. 120k is a lot of money but is it above the odds for a commercial site that most of the other commercial sites rely on. 2.5k rent per week for a car park that hold about 100 cars. Shops in Town pay loads more rent than that.

it appears the land is crown land and that appears to be the sticking point.the parsih constables believe it is and the sark resident thinks it is part of his fief.only time will tell

Sandpiper only have to put the price of groceries up to cover the cost........

£120,000 rent for a car park is not feasable its as simple as that, maybe if he had asked a reasonable rent he may have made some headway.

Is the car park usable at present, or is it still obstructed ?

there are still old cars parked there kingcolemk.they are an eyesore and dangerous.the car park is partially usable

£120,000 return on £50,000 investment in the first year seems a tad greedy.

what he paid for it is irrelevent, its what he wants for it which is the problem and as a car park its not worth it.

the problem would then arrise if he made an agreement with checkers what about the chip shop and village store, would they then be banned from using the car park.

After all this time it does seem strange that they cant find out who the legal owner is, surely it cant be that difficult to find out as there does seem to be an history of agreements.

Well, I am sure that someone will be making money out of all of this....... not just Sark resident Thomas Holroyd!!! There will probably be some legal advisers behind the scenes rubbing their hands with glee!!!

IMO he does appear to be somewhat greedy, but then we do not know what negotiations (if any!) have gone on behind the scenes and Sandpiper appear to be maintaining a respectful silence about all of this.

Whatever the issues, it is time for the parties to get togetehr and resolve the matter to everyone's satisfaction. It is an eyesore and detracts from the natural beauty of the area for locals and visitors alike.



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This is the kind of local problem which the new centralized form of government which Guernsey has adopted ( under pressure from New Labour ) is not interested in and is keen to ignore.

They should be banging heads together and putting pressure on in the apropriate places to get it sorted and stop faffing about.

Enjoy! It's just another unique feature of Guernsey life!

Hold on, he has a commodity which he wants to sell/lease at the best price. Good luck to him if he has made a huge profit on the first year, are we all just jealous, probably. I am sure most people on this forum have held out for what they consider to be the best price, for say a house sale, not a lot of difference. If Sandpiper rent the car park from him now and the store and chippy customers use it then that will probably carry on however it would seem fair that Sandpiper try to regain some of the cost fom other establishments. The basic problem is that Govt have not decided who owns the land. Is the car park worth 110k+ well only Sandpiper can answer that and only time will tell. It is only worth what someone will pay for it and I wouldn't give him tuppence for it, but I don't own a supermarket that needs car spaces.

plimmerton811 wrote:Hold on, he has a commodity which he wants to sell/lease at the best price. Good luck to him if he has made a huge profit on the first year, are we all just jealous, probably. I am sure most people on this forum have held out for what they consider to be the best price, for say a house sale, not a lot of difference. If Sandpiper rent the car park from him now and the store and chippy customers use it then that will probably carry on however it would seem fair that Sandpiper try to regain some of the cost fom other establishments. The basic problem is that Govt have not decided who owns the land. Is the car park worth 110k+ well only Sandpiper can answer that and only time will tell. It is only worth what someone will pay for it and I wouldn't give him tuppence for it, but I don't own a supermarket that needs car spaces.

Exactly !!! Stop faffing about and get it sorted.

If they can tell you that you can't have a shed in your back garden, then they should be able to have some say in what happens on a publically accesible patch of land.

Nice to see it being done to Sandpiper (A'la Tom Scott Crowd Ect) the otherway round!!

There speaks the voice of green envy and petty jealousy. :roll:

Shaun The Sheep wrote:Nice to see it being done to Sandpiper (A'la Tom Scott Crowd Ect) the otherway round!!

Green envy and petty jealousy or not it is nice to see another businessman using big business tactics against big business, if the situation was reversed would Sandpiper do the same, most probably, Tom Scott certainly would. He is not known for his generosity in business dealings however I will add that he has been in more personal situations.

dont think tom scott has got anything to do with sandpiper

Skips trucks moved in this afternoon, and moved all the old vehicles, wonder what the outcome of that will be...

At long last - if legal action is taken by Holroyd I hope the Royal Court has the gonads to tell him where to get off. I can't see him getting far in the long appeals process bearing in mind he has only spurious claims to an ancient right of fiefdom.

they had experts look at the cars and they were declared write offs so holroyd cant start trying to make claims against anybody.well done to mr brouard and everybody else involved

About time the States started showing a bit of commitment to out of Town problems.

it was done privately kingcole as the constables apparently couldnt take the law into their own hands xx

Hooray for the Guernsey Boys!