St Helier Jersey - Urban Character workshop - Willie Miller consultant - 25 October 2019

If you have difficulty sleeping this blog might help.
Planners and designers are especially boring talking about their work and here is a video extract from the discussion on St Helier Jersey's future in conjunction with the latest Island Plan now being produced.

This video extract lasts about 34 minutes in total.

It was taken from the second part of the "urban character" discussion  open to the general public. It lasted about 2 hours.
The first part was with civil servants and States Members the same day .

Willie Miller Urban Design from Glasgow have visited Jersey before (eg 2005) and seem to specialise in organising such events.

I asked to video record the proceedings and this was agreed but some members of the public did not want to appear.
I offered to supply paper bags to put on their heads but this was declined. So this shortened recording of the proceedings does not include images of the 18 or so public participants.
Hopefully it might be of some interest to the 106,000 residents of Jersey who did not attend the discussions - but I doubt it.

The discussion was based upon the premise that St Helier has an "urban character" at all  but this was not really discussed . It was one of several unsubstantiated "givens" such as the inevitability of population growth in Jersey over the next 10 years or so and the presumption that new housing stock will have to be built and that a major part will have to be built in St Helier.

There was no analysis of the economic drivers that might give rise to further population growth or decline.
It seems that past growth is accepted as inevitable in the future too although the likely further decline of tourism and agriculture was not discussed nor how much land in other parishes might thereby become available for development or other uses.

There was no discussion of Brexit or Climate Change or the Finance Sector.
There was no mention of the 360 or so International Conventions, Treaties or Obligations that Jersey has signed up to according to the current Island Plan nor how these might relate to St Helier or the whole Island over the next 10 years.

This is especially odd since discriminatory policies already apply to the enjoyment of housing accommodation and employment and it is currently proposed to introduce even more restrictive regulations to discourage immigration and restrict population growth. This "hostile environment" policy appears to be embraced for the future without challenge.

Although Jersey currently has 20,000 residents who are required to apply for "settled status" as nationals of EU countries only 7,000 have to date done so. According to the law those who do not apply before the end of 2020 will be liable to deportation.

Such factors can have a substantial impact on the "character" of St Helier and the whole Island.
It seems that many of the issues that relate to the future planning of Jersey remain unresolved or researched just as they were 10 years ago. 
This workshop might appear to be based upon superficial economic and population predictions that have not been adequately researched or challenged.

Andreea from Romania, Sean from Ireland, Richard from St Helier...all living in Jersey with or without harmony.

Interview above with Andreea

We published here on 26 November 2012 an interview with Mr David Warr of the Chamber of Commerce just after he appeared before the Population, Housing and Control of Work Scrutiny Sub-Panel.

That meeting was very worrying because there was an undercurrent of xenophobia from the States' Members during the discussions.  Several wanted even more extreme restrictions against "immigrants" and there were calls for Photos on ID cards, more spot checks at places of work and at the docks to apprehend "white van man" etc.

Bearing in mind that Jersey is supposed. at long last, to be grappling with the notion of anti-discrimination

 laws, such views were all the more strtartling. It was the sort of loose talk that might be heard in some public bars - but hardly those to be expected from our paid politicians in 2013 - or nearly 70 years after Jersey's liberation from war-time occupation.

On 24 December - Christmas Eve in the Christian diary - we publishd here an interview with Adriana - who was about to return to Romania after a few, not very satisfactory months, working in Jersey.

 Her seasonal tale would no doubt have satisfied the scrutiny sub-panel because she would be vacating accommodation and freeing up the job market to "locals".

Now the Scrutiny Sub-Panel, led by Irish-man Deputy Sean Power has published its report  "Population and Migration Review Part 2" which  is even more dreadfully discriminatory and prejudiced than might have been anticipated.

Today we have interviewed another young Romanian woman - Andreea - who has been working in Jersey for nearly 4 years and her views as expressed are remarkably generous. She offers no strong criticisms of Jersey or the policies that have impacted on her life here. On the contrary, she anticipates her future with enthusiasm, whether it might be here or in India or elsewhere....

Constable Murphy of Grouville - some of his views...

Part one video is about 4 minutes - Part two about 22 minutes.

Constable Dan Murphy of Grouville

In this two part interview (the unexpected ‘phone call being the cause for a break) Dan Murphy aka “Spud” joins the discussion on the role of Constables and other things.

An “Old Victorian”, born in Jersey during the war, he tried to become a Deputy in 1993/4 when Imogen “Vera Lynn” Nicholls was elected. So he has primarily served as Constable in a Parish (population about 4,500) which quite often returns candidates unopposed.

Especially interesting here is that Dan is against the States’ purchase of Plemont and the obvious question is whether most of the other Constables will take a similar stance in the Chamber?

Presumably if a majority of the Constables vote one way or the other then they will be accused of being a “party” with a block vote.

Constable Murphy is clearly not too keen on being mandated by his Parishioners – so he will have to defy them if they did call a Parish meeting and express a view in favour of States’ acquisition. What might happen in other Parishes?

In fact, the only Parish really affected by the Plemont issue is St Ouen but it has now been made an “all Island issue”. So it will be especially interesting to see how the various factions within and outside the States play their cards.

Conservatives and ecologists are an unstable alliance at the best of times but with Senator Bailhache carrying the flag for acquisition some of the more progressive elements will have difficult choices to make!

Also revealing is Constable Murphy’s desire to build more affordable housing in his Parish. Of course, he wants to house people – but the underlying agenda is the need to have more suitable young candidates for the Parish Honorary service – currently seriously understaffed.

The traditional farming community is no longer available in Grouville to call upon and similar concerns have been expressed in other “country” Parishes too. Bearing in mind that there used to be 1,100 dairy farms in Jersey after the war and there are now only 26 (and even this number is likely to reduce rapidly soon), the “traditional Jersey future” looks bleak.

The more so since the population has increased from 50,000 to 100,000 over the same period and our leaders are already contemplating 140,000.

Yet although Dan Murphy wants more houses in his Parish – he still want to control their allocation and it seems that Housing Minister Green has already agreed to an opt-out from the common “Gateway” system…

Clearly the whole new housing strategy will be torpedoed even before launching if other Parishes and Housing Trusts are able to allocate “social” houses according to their own priorities and whims…

Thanks to Constable Murphy for his time and sorry if the image gets a bit dark towards the end.

If any other Constables would like to be video-interviewed in this series, please make contact.