Compromise in the Park

Constable’s Comment, Town Crier, June 2024

For more than a decade now, I have been campaigning that the Millennium Town Park should be extended, and I was encouraged by the bold and visionary suggestion of Andium Homes that there should be no additional housing at all built on this site, occupied by the former Jersey Gas Company. Sadly, very few States Members have agreed with us that the significant increase in housing units being built in the north of St Helier makes the need for a Town Park extension even stronger; we only have to think of the particular importance the existing Park had during the recent pandemic for town residents with no access to open space. Two St Helier Deputies went so far as amending the recent Bridging Island Plan to reserve the site in question for educational facilities. Now, I have no doubt that investment is needed in our town’s primary schools; indeed, the condition of Rouge Bouillon School has been discussed by successive governments for many years. However, recent evidence that primary school roles are falling makes it all the more essential that the case is proven for building a large new town primary school on the Jersey Gas site, replacing St Luke’s, Janvrin and Springfield Schools. (In passing, I would question whether one big school, especially at primary level, is actually better for children than three smaller ones).

Of course, it is well known that the Government is looking for a site for a youth centre in the north of St Helier, and a recent tour, arranged by Andium Homes, of the former Jersey Gas Company showroom and warehouse, has suggested a compromise to me: rather than asking for the whole of the site in question to be turned into open space, it seems to me that this building would be ideal for re-use as a hub for indoor sports for young people as well as providing the other accommodation that the Youth Service would like to create. In doing so, we would avoid spending £40m on a new school, as well as releasing around two-thirds of the site for the much-needed open space, grass and trees which the whole community could enjoy.